ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,256,913, issued on March 25, was assigned to Stryker European Operations Holdings LLC (Portage, Mich.).

"Surgical tool including an inelastic and elastic cable to be tensioned to impart a bend" was invented by Gerard W. Nunan (Ballincollig, Ireland).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical tool including an inelastic and elastic cable to impart a bend to a shaft. A steering assembly is coupled to the shaft and configured to cause longitudinal displacement of the shaft relative to the body to tension the cables to bend the shaft bendable section in a direction of the flexible inelastic cable. The surgical tool may include an active tip w...