US Patent Issued to University of Pittsburgh-Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education on Dec. 16 for "Device and method for nerve block by local cooling to room temperature" (Pennsylvania Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,496,216, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to University of Pittsburgh-Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education (Pittsburgh).

"Device and method for nerve block by local cooling to room temperature" was invented by Changfeng Tai (Wexford, Pa.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Provided herein are methods of nerve blockage, for example for treatment of obesity, heart failure, cardiovascular disease, muscle spasms, chronic pain, or urinary retention in a patient. The method comprises first heating a nerve above physiological temperature (e.g., 37deg C. in a human), such as from 43deg C. to 54deg C. for a duration that leads to reversible n...