ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 30 -- United States Patent no. 12,369,947, issued on July 29, was assigned to STRYKER EUROPEAN OPERATIONS Ltd. (Carrigtwohill, Ireland).
"Self-healing balloons" was invented by Omar Elmalak (Jat, Israel), Moran Haim-Zada (Caesarea, Israel) and Abraham J. Domb (Caesarea, Israel).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A balloon implantation kit includes an inflatable biodegradable balloon configured to be implanted in a human body and a hydrogel composition. In some cases, the hydrogel composition is provided in a container configured to be introduced into the biodegradable balloon. For some applications, the biodegradable balloon includes a joint spacer for treatment of a joint of...