US Patent Issued to Edwards Lifesciences on Jan. 27 for "Rib retractor with compliant retractor blade" (California Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,533,116, issued on Jan. 27, was assigned to Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Irvine, Calif.).

"Rib retractor with compliant retractor blade" was invented by Pablo Hernan Catania (Costa Mesa, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A retractor blade includes a descender portion and a hook portion. The descender portion is configured to engage a rib in response to a retraction force applied to the retractor blade. The hook portion forms a channel with the descender portion. The channel is configured to secure the rib against the descender portion. The descender portion and the hook portion are integrally formed of a compliant material. The first ...