ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,271, issued on July 1, was assigned to Medtronic Inc. (Minneapolis).
"Loading tools for prosthetic valve devices" was invented by Craig Higgins (Galway, Ireland).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A loading tool to facilitate loading a prosthesis into a delivery system includes a hinged body with first and second body portions and a collar slidingly disposed over the hinged body. First ends of the body portions are attached and second ends of the body portions are not attached. Each body portion includes a resilient clip that includes a radial protrusion. Each resilient clip is configured to displaced radially inwards when a pinching force...