ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,636,031, issued on May 26.
"Modular forceps" was invented by William J. Zinnanti (Santa Cruz, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A forceps system is disclosed, including a handle and a shaft-and-jaw assembly. The handle includes an immovable proximal handgrip and a lever resiliently pivotably coupled to the immovable proximal handgrip, such that exertion of a manual gripping force on the lever pivots the lever in a proximal direction toward the handgrip. The shaft-and-jaw assembly is releasably couplable to the handle, the shaft-and-jaw assembly including at least one pivotable jaw member normally biased to an open configuration, the o...