ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 15 -- United States Patent no. 12,661,467, issued on June 23, was assigned to ICU MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL Ltd. (Ashford, Great Britain).
"Medico-surgical tubes" was invented by John Zarembo (Minneapolis), Eli Joseph McElwain (Champlin, Minn.), Mark Henry Faust (Stacy, Minn.) and Mary Schueppert (Minneapolis).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A cuffed tracheostomy tube has a shaft (10) with an inflation lumen (16) extending longitudinally along the shaft and opening at its patient end into a sealing cuff (13). The tube also includes a reinforcement member provided by a metal wire (25) wound into two sets of loops (26A) and (26B) of different widths. The loops (26) extend part w...