ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,539,185, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG (Tuttlingen, Germany).
"Surgical instrument and steering gear for same" was invented by Sven Axel Gruner (Trossingen, Germany), Dominik Langle (Mulheim, Germany), Janosz Schneider (Donaueschingen, Germany) and Jochen Stefan (Wald, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A steering gear for a surgical instrument includes an angling mechanism which can be controlled by a spatially adjustable wobble plate. The steering gear has a first and a second drive wheel with a respective associated motor, and the second drive wheel is arranged offset by 180deg relative to the first drive...