Superdimension, Ltd.

Covidien LP

Danny Blecher

Pinhas Gilboa

Benny Greenburg

David Tolkowsky

Heinrich D Becker

Gil Griefner

Benny Greenberg

A clip or flexible handles extension facilitate simultaneous retention and operation of a bronchoscope and associated bronchoscopic tools held in one hand to allow operation by a single practitioner. Also provided is an adapter for the connection port of the working channel of a bronchoscope which performs both sealing and tool-locking functions. Also disclosed is a guide sheath arrangement with a reduced flexibility proximal portion to facilitate insertion of tools into the guide sheath.

System of accessories for use with bronchoscopes

Systems and methods for endoscopic procedures employ a first technique to ensure initial correct alignment of an endoscope () with a desired target (). A reference image () is then acquired from an imaging arrangement associated with the endoscope. During a subsequent stage of the procedure, tracking of the endoscope position relative to the target is performed partially or entirely by image-based tracking by comparing features in real-time video image () produced by imaging arrangement with features in the reference image (). The feature comparison may be performed visually by a user, or may be automated to offer more specific corrective suggestions to the user.

System and method for image-based alignment of an endoscope

A system and method for tracking the position and orientation of a probe. Three at least partly overlapping planar antennas are used to transmit electromagnetic radiation simultaneously, with the radiation transmitted by each antenna having its own spectrum. A receiver inside the probe includes sensors of the three components of the transmitted field, with sensors for at least two of the three components being pairs of sensors, such as coils, on opposite sides of a common reference point. In one variant of the receiver, the coils are collinear and are wound about cores that are mounted in pairs of diametrically opposed apertures in the housing of the probe. Each member of a pair of coils that sense the same component of the transmitted field is connected to a different input of a differential amplifier. The position and orientation of the receiver relative to the antennas are determined noniteratively.

Intrabody navigation system for medical applications

A catheter, including: a housing having a transverse inner dimension of at most about two millimeters; and a coil arrangement including five coils and five solid cores. Each of the coils is wound around one of the solid cores. The coils are non-coaxial. The coil arrangement is mounted inside the housing.

Navigable catheter

A system and method for tracking the position and orientation of a probe such as a catheter whose transverse inner dimension may be at most about two millimeters. Three planar antennas that at least partly overlap are used to transmit electromagnetic radiation simultaneously, with the radiation transmitted by each antenna having its own spectrum. In the case of single-frequency spectra, the antennas are provided with mechanisms for decoupling them from each other. A receiver inside the probe includes sensors of the three components of the transmitted field, with sensors for at least two of the three components being pairs of sensors, such as coils, disposed symmetrically with respect to a common reference point. In one variant of the receiver, the coils are collinear and are wound about cores that are mounted in pairs of diametrically opposed apertures in the housing of the probe. In another variant of the receiver-catheter combination, the catheter is configured with an inner and outer sleeve connected at their ends by one or more flexible elements on which the coils are mounted. Each member of a pair of coils that sense the same component of the transmitted field is connected to a different input of a differential amplifier. The position and orientation of the receiver relative to the antennas are determined noniteratively, by setting up an overdetermined set of linear equations that relates the received signals to transmitter-receiver amplitudes, solving for the amplitudes and inferring the position coordinates and the orientation angles of the receiver relative to the transmitter from these amplitudes.

A steering configuration for facilitating steering of a catheter or the like provided with a rigid distal device employs a flexible support element to which a rigid device is attached at its distal end. At least one elongated flexible control element is configured such that tension applied to the control element causes flexing of the flexible support element. The control element is directly attached to the rigid device, thereby rendering the rigid device an operative extension of the steering mechanism.

Growing community of inventors

Ramat Gan, Israel

Danny Blecher