US Patent Issued to University of Hawaii on June 9 for "MRI compatible steerable surgical apparatus and method" (Hawaii Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,648,792, issued on June 9, was assigned to University of Hawaii (Honolulu).

"MRI compatible steerable surgical apparatus and method" was invented by Bardia Konh (Honolulu), Blayton Padasdao (Honolulu) and Samuel Lafreniere (Honolulu).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A steerable surgical apparatus comprises a steerable surgical tubular needle, a needle manipulation apparatus with multiple actuators (permitting adjustment of needle rotation, translation, and bending), fiducial markers affixed to the needle manipulation apparatus, encoders configured to sense movements initiated by actuators, and a control unit. The needle manipulation apparatu...