US Patent Issued to KARL STORZ on June 30 for "Tympanostomy tube and placement device" (Irish Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,667,492, issued on June 30, was assigned to KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG (Tuttlingen, Germany).

"Tympanostomy tube and placement device" was invented by John Vaughan (Cork, Ireland), Olive O'Driscoll (Kinsale, Ireland) and Carol Grimes (Skerries, Ireland).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tympanostomy tube placement device has a needle with a tip, and a retainer at the needle tip. The retainer is within and retains by pulling radially inwardly a tympanostomy tube distal flange in a folded configuration extending distally. Movement of the needle tip in the proximal direction causes the adhesive bond to break and the distal flange releases to an u...