ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,708,393, issued on Aug. 18, was assigned to Sutter Medizintechnik GmbH (Emmendingen, Germany).
"Surgical instrument for minimally invasive surgery" was invented by Dirk Weitkamp (Waldkirch, Germany), Thomas Dunz (Teningen, Germany), Lothar Mitzlaff (Lagos, Portugal), Michael Thoss (Nagold, Germany) and Andre Fichtner (Wildberg, Germany).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical instrument comprising two jaw portions, at least one of which is rotatably mounted via an axis of rotation at a distal end of a shaft and is connected via a traction cable or a push rod to a gripping portion at the proximal end of the shaft, wherein the jaw formed ...