ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,161, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to Covidien LP (Mansfield, Mass.).
"Systems for treating a hollow anatomical structure" was invented by Russell Blake Thompson (Los Altos, Calif.), Brady David Esch (San Jose, Calif.), Vijay Kumar Dhaka (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Fiona Maria Sander (Los Altos Hills, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A working end of a catheter includes at least one therapeutic element, such as a resistive heating element, usable to deliver energy for ligating, or reducing the diameter of, a hollow anatomical structure. In certain examples, the catheter includes a lumen to accommodate a guide wire or to allow fluid ...