US Patent Issued to ICU MEDICAL on May 5 for "Echogenic needle" (Minnesota Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,616,438, issued on May 5, was assigned to ICU MEDICAL INC. (San Clemente, Calif.).

"Echogenic needle" was invented by Andrew Crisman (Shoreview, Minn.) and Alysa Lauren Granata (Minneapolis).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An echogenic needle may have at least one V-shaped spiral groove formed at its distal portion adjacent to its patient end. The walls of the groove are orthogonal to each other. The groove is titled at a given angle from a neutral position toward the proximal end of the needle so that when the needle is inserted into the patient at an insertion angle under ultrasound imaging, the ultrasound wave emitted from the ultrasound ...