US Patent Issued to Edwards Lifesciences on July 14 for "Adjustable annuloplasty ring and delivery system" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,678,284, issued on July 14, was assigned to Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Irvine, Calif.).

"Adjustable annuloplasty ring and delivery system" was invented by Brian S. Conklin (Orange, Calif.), Amy E. Munnelly (Irvine, Calif.) and Milton Deherrera (Irvine, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An annuloplasty ring for repair of mitral and tricuspid valves that can be shape adjusted once installed to fine-tune the shape and correct for small errors in the inherently imprecise sizing process. The ring has an adjustable 3D ring core of malleable metal that can be reshaped in real-time during the procedure before or after the patient is weaned ...