US Patent Issued to Virtuoso Surgical on Nov. 3 for "Concentric tube apparatus for minimally invasive surgery" (Tennessee Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,778,688, issued on Nov. 3, was assigned to Virtuoso Surgical Inc. (Nashville, Tenn.).

"Concentric tube apparatus for minimally invasive surgery" was invented by Richard Hendrick (Nashville, Tenn.), Neal Dillon (Nashville, Tenn.), Evan Blum (Nashville, Tenn.) and Lauren Branscombe (Nashville, Tenn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A minimally invasive surgery device includes a guide tube with a highly-curved distal end housed within a channel. The highly-curved distal end is configured with a curvature optimized for improved triangulation in a tissue workspace. The highly-curved distal end of the guide tube extends from a curved channel insi...