US Patent Issued to NuVasive on Aug. 18 for "Surgical shim" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,708,357, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to NuVasive Inc. (San Diego).

"Surgical shim" was invented by Kelli Lynch (San Diego), Stephanie Hagan (San Diego), Michael Brotman (San Diego) and Alejandro R. De La Rosa (National City, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A retractor includes retractor blades and one or more shims coupled to one or more of the retractor blades. The shims can include features configured to fasten the shim to vertebral anatomy. Such features can facilitate the use a K-wire or barbed features. Example disclosed shim designs include those featuring a K-wire feature, a barbed feature, and a K-wire with barb design....