Other

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Alan W Brown

Michael Miller

Yuli Kitaevich

Ronald L Underwood

Neil David Johnson

A dental prosthesis securing system secures a dental prosthesis to a dental implant. An abutment for cement has a base surface for placement against the dental implant. The base surface does not define an engagement shape that requires alignment with a complementary shape defined by the implant. A securing mechanism secures the abutment for cement to the dental implant.

Dental implant system

Apparatus for illuminating a central area of an eye by generally lamellar lighting during eye surgery. Basically, a support fixture carrying a light emitter is adapted to be placed adjacent to the surgical field. The support fixture, when in place on an eye, directs light from the light emitter toward the surgical field tangentially to the cornea, at an angle of from about 0.degree. to 90.degree. to the plane of the eye iris. The light entering the eye travels along the lamellae of the cornea in the manner of a light pipe. Very little, if any light reaches the back of the eye, avoiding patient discomfort, or is directed toward the surgical microscope as glare. This generally lamellar lighting combines scleral scatter and retro illumination. In preferred embodiments, the light emitter may be mounted on, or incorporated in, a conventional eyelid speculum or a fixation ring.

Lamellar illumination apparatus for eye surgery

A portable laser guided alignment apparatus includes a laser line beam source and a laser fan beam source, with the line beam being in the same plane as the fan beam. The apparatus further includes mechanisms for adjusting the angle of the fan beam relative to a vertical reference plane and for adjusting the angle of the line beam within the plane of the fan beam. Additionally, measurement devices are included to measure the angle of the fan beam relative to the vertical reference plane, and to measure the angle of the line beam relative to a vertical reference line within the fan beam plane. The apparatus provides precise alignment for biopsy tools and other instruments used in standard biopsies, discolysis, stereotaxis, and other medical procedures wherein highly accurate positioning and insertion of instruments into a patient are required.

Laser guided alignment apparatus for medical procedures

Apparatus for illuminating a central area of an eye by lamellar lighting during eye surgery. Basically, a support fixture carrying a light emitter is adapted to be placed adjacent to the surgical field. The support fixture, when in place on an eye, directs light from the light emitter toward the surgical field tangentially to the cornea, at an angle of from about 0 to 45.degree. to the plane of the eye iris. The light entering the eye travels along the lamellae of the cornea in the manner of a light pipe. Very little, if any light reaches the back of the eye, avoiding patient discomfort, or is directed toward the surgical microscope as glare. This lamellar lighting combines scleral scatter and retro illumination. In preferred embodiments, the light emitter may be mounted on, or incorporated in, a conventional eyelid speculum or a fixation ring.

An apparatus for custom cutting clip-on sunglasses includes a first holder for securely holding eyeglasses and a second holder for securely holding clip-on sunglasses. A first locator assists in positioning the eyeglasses on the first holder. A second locator is used for positioning the sunglasses on the second holder. A support carries a guide for tracing the perimeter of the eyeglasses and a cutter for cutting the clip-on sunglasses. To custom cut the clip-on sunglasses, the eyeglasses are positioned on the holder and each lens of the eyeglasses is marked at a point aligned with a respective locator on the holder. The clip-on sunglasses are then clipped onto the eyeglasses, and the points on the sunglasses positioned over the marks on the eyeglasses are marked. The clip-on sunglasses are then positioned on a second holder. The guide is then moved around the perimeter of the eyeglasses. The cutter moves with the guide such that the cutter cuts the sunglasses into the shape of the eyeglasses.

Cutter for clip-on sunglasses

A method and apparatus for causing weight loss in obese humans by occupying a segment of the stomach volume using a variable volume bladder filled with fluid. The bladder is inserted into the upper part of the stomach including the fundus through a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostony tube, which was non-surgically placed to create a permanent channel to the stomach. The inserted bladder is filled and emptied using a filling system for pumping fluid in and out of the bladder according to a predetermined scheme. The filling system comprises a reversible pump, a two-way valve connected to the filling tube, an electronic control means for automatically controlling the action of the filling system, and a battery. The electronic control means is connected to a plurality of sensors placed on the human body to detect digestion cycle and hemodynamic parameters. The electronic control means collects information detected by the sensors, governs the filling system according to the obtained information and predetermined operation scheme, and records times and volumes of the fluid transferred through the two-way valve.

Device and method of causing weight loss using removable variable volume

The invention is directed to a nucleus splitter adapted to crack a hard nucleus of an eye after the nucleus has been sculpted by a pair of crossed grooves which set-off four quadrants of the nucleus. The nucleus splitter includes a pair of arms having first and second end portions united at a pivot with each end portion terminating in a relatively elongated narrow member having a laterally projecting nucleus splitting tip. The second end portions of the arms are generally resilient and normally urge the narrow members and tips into abutment with each other along the plane through an axis of the pivot. Finger and thumb pressure is applied to the medial portion of the arms causing the elongated narrow members to rock, pivot or spread apart and in doing so define an acute angle opening away from the pivot. In this position the elongated narrow members and the entirety of the first and second arms remain on the same side of the plane as in the unstressed condition of the medial portion.

Nucleus splitter

A surgical staple is made from highly flexible material and has at least two piercing projections or points spaced from each other a first predetermined linear distance in a generally unstressed, neutral and inoperative condition of the staple. The staple is stressed in a selected fashion causing the piercing projections to be spaced from each other a second predetermined linear distance greater than the first predetermined linear distance. While the piercing projections are spaced from each other, the second predetermined linear distance under the induced forces, the staple is implanted by penetrating the skin with the piercing projections at opposite sides of an associated wound or incision. The forces are then removed from the surgical staple which inherently rebounds to its generally unstressed condition which in turn automatically draws opposite margins of the wound toward each other.

Surgical staple

A split lamp applanation tonometer includes a tonometer tip for contacting a corneal surface of an eye, a mechanism for moving the tonometer tip to applanate and vary the degree of applanation of the corneal surface, an optical viewing axis along which the applanated corneal surface can be viewed, and an electrical and/or optical system for transforming the degree of applanation to an ocular pressure value and displaying the ocular pressure value at a location at which it is visible when a user views along the optical viewing axis whereby both the applanated corneal surface and the ocular pressure value thereof can be viewed simultaneously.

Applanation tonometer

An inflatable toy simulating the mouth of an insect which includes a tubular mouthpiece, a sound-generating mechanism, a juncture between the mouthpiece and a pair of hollow arms, the arms being defined by first, medical and second terminal ends, the arms normally being folded with the second ends in end-to-end opposing relationship, and the material of the toy being so constructed as to maintain the arms in the latter position, and return the same from an inflated position at which the second ends of the arms project generally in opposite directions to each other with the overall effect thereof being that of the mouth of an insect.

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Owings Mills, MD, United States of America

Alan W Brown