US Patent Issued to Howmedica Osteonics on June 2 for "Intra-operative gap detection" (American, Dutch Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 2 -- United States Patent no. 12,642,672, issued on June 2, was assigned to Howmedica Osteonics Corp. (Mahwah, N.J.).

"Intra-operative gap detection" was invented by Carlos O. Alva (Boynton Beach, Fla.), Ezra S. Johnson (Reeds Spring, Mont.) and Matthias Verstraete (Chaam, Netherlands).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein are joint implants and methods for intra-operatively detecting joint implant gap. A method for detecting a joint implant gap may include coupling a first implant to a first bone of a joint, coupling a second implant to a second bone of the joint, measuring an amplitude of a magnetic flux density using a magnetic sensor to determine a gap betwe...