US Patent Issued to Intuitive Surgical Operations on April 7 for "Surgical instrument ports configured for use with wound retractors, and related devices and methods" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 7 -- United States Patent no. 12,594,408, issued on April 7, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).

"Surgical instrument ports configured for use with wound retractors, and related devices and methods" was invented by Brian M. Crews (San Jose, Calif.), Sam Crews (Palomar Park, Calif.), Craig R. Gerbi (Half Moon Bay, Calif.), Michael Hurst (San Francisco) and Sumona Adhya (Santa Clara, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical port includes an end face comprising a channel extending through the end face, the channel having a cross section shaped to receive a surgical instrument cannula, and a lateral wall extending around a perimet...