ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,661,176, issued on June 23, was assigned to Biosense Webster (Israel) Ltd. (Yokneam, Israel).
"Catheter with flow balancing valve" was invented by Jeffrey W. Schultz (Anaheim, Calif.) and Michael Olen Zirkle (Yorba Linda, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A catheter has at least two irrigated ablation electrodes and a coaxial irrigation tubing to transport fluid to the electrodes by separate and dedicated flow paths. A valve is used to control flow of fluid into the coaxial irrigation tubing by means of a plunger assembly that allows fluid to flow through one lumen of the coaxial irrigation tubing while regulating the flow into the o...