US Patent Issued to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS on Feb. 3 for "Catheter with removable vision probe" (American, Italian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,400, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to INTUITIVE SURGICAL OPERATIONS INC. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Catheter with removable vision probe" was invented by Vincent Duindam (San Francisco), Samuel Kwok Wai Au (Mountain View, Calif.), Caitlin Q. Donhowe (Mountain View, Calif.), Carolyn M. Fenech (San Jose, Calif.), Catherine J. Mohr (Mountain View, Calif.) and Giuseppe Maria Prisco (Calci Pisa, Italy).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A medical system includes a catheter and a vision probe that can be removed from the catheter and replaced with a medical probe. The vision probe can thus be used to steer and pose the catheter, and then be removed ...