US Patent Issued to OLYMPUS on May 5 for "Surgical system and expansion device" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,616,357, issued on May 5, was assigned to OLYMPUS Corp. (Tokyo).

"Surgical system and expansion device" was invented by Jun Wakasone (Saitama, Japan), Hiroyoshi Kobayashi (Tokyo), Takeshi Murata (Tokyo) and Shotaro Takemoto (Tokyo).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical system includes: an overtube including a channel into which an endoscope is inserted; and an expansion device configured to ensure a surgical space by expanding an interior of a body at a distal side relative to a tip of the overtube. The expansion device includes a sheath and a wire configured to be protrudable from the sheath. The wire is configured to be switchable bet...