US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on Nov. 18 for "Systems and methods for facilitating insertion of a surgical instrument into a surgical space" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,471,994, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Systems and methods for facilitating insertion of a surgical instrument into a surgical space" was invented by Marisa C. Babb (Santa Clara, Calif.), Craig Gotsill (San Francisco), Sophia R. Hannaford (Palo Alto, Calif.), Brandon D. Itkowitz (San Jose, Calif.), Jason S. LaFrenais (San Jose, Calif.) and Daniel W. Nissenbaum (San Francisco).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An exemplary system determines an insertion trajectory that a surgical instrument is positioned to follow when inserted into a surgical space. The system provides, for displa...