The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 22, 2000
Steven Peng, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Larry Voss, San Jose, CA (US);
David E. Hancock, San Francisco, CA (US);
Grace A. Carlson, San Francisco, CA (US);
John W Davis, Mountain View, CA (US);
Albert K. Chin, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Jaime S. Vargas, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Origin Medsystems Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A flexible locking arm for use in an organ manipulator apparatus. The flexible locking arm has a flexible state, used to position the organ manipulator as needed, and a fixed state for mounting the manipulator in a desired orientation. Even in the fixed state, the organ manipulator maintains a limited freedom of movement, to allow the organ held to continue to move substantially according to its natural motion during functioning. For example, in an embodiment where a suction member exerts suction to retract a beating heart and suspend it in a retracted position during surgery by setting the flexible arm to the fixed state, as the retracted heart beats, a complaint joint allows it to expand and contract freely (and otherwise move naturally) at least in the vertical direction so that hemodynamic function is not substantially compromised.