Patents Examined by Dinh X. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 6797004
    Abstract: An intraocular lens system including one or more intraocular lenses (IOL) and a peripheral holder. The peripheral holder is configured to receive and retain the distal end of a fixation member of the IOL and provide a dynamic interface between the natural capsular bag and fixation member. The holder is preferably annular and flexible and transmits movement of the capsular bag from the surrounding ciliary muscles to the IOL. In this manner, a circumferential surface contact with the capsular bag is provided and accommodation of the IOL is improved. If two IOLs are received in the holder, a spacer may be provided to insure consistent spacing between the IOLs. Alternatively, an IOL system may include two IOLs and a spacer, without the holder. The holder desirably includes a sharp exterior corner to inhibit cell growth and posterior capsular opacification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2004
    Assignee: Advanced Medical Optics, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel G. Brady, Robert Glick
  • Patent number: 6702851
    Abstract: A biocompatible heart valve is described having incorporated therein an effective amount of applied coating to render the valve resistant to in vivo pathologic thrombus formation and resistant to in vivo pathologic calcification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 1998
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2004
    Inventors: Joseph A. Chinn, Jack R. Frautschi, Richard E. Phillips
  • Patent number: 6692520
    Abstract: The invention includes systems and methods for stimulating intramuscular angiogenesis by placing a biocompatible device within the tissue of a muscle. The biocompatible device is dimensionally adapted for placement within the tissue of a muscle. Placement of the biocompatible device within the muscle can take place according to the method of the invention by using techniques familiar to those of ordinary skill in the art. Illustrative techniques for placement of the device within the myocardium comprise one practice of the method of the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2004
    Assignee: C. R. Bard, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard A. Gambale, Mike Weiser, Stephen Forcucci, Chirag B. Shah
  • Patent number: 6537316
    Abstract: A deformable intraocular lens having frosted and/or colored haptic portions. The frosted haptic portions increase the frictional resistance to movement or rotation within the inner structure of the eye once implanted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: Staar Surgical Co., Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas J. Chambers
  • Patent number: 6533814
    Abstract: Intraocular lens comprising a central optical body and haptics attached to or formed integrally with said optical body wherein the haptics are attached to the optical body via connecting members separating the haptic plane from the optical plane by a distance b which is at least half the thickness of the optical body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 18, 2003
    Assignee: Pharmacia Groningen, BV
    Inventor: Peter Jansen
  • Patent number: 6508837
    Abstract: This invention is a pre-formed intrastromal corneal insert. It is made of a physiologically compatible polymer and may be used to adjust corneal curvature and thereby correct vision abnormalities. The insert or segment may also be used to deliver therapeutic or diagnostic agents to the interior of the cornea or of the eye. The insert subtends only a portion of a ring, or “arc”, encircling the anterior cornea outside of the cornea's field of view. The invention also includes a procedure for inserting the device into the cornea.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: Addition Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas A. Silvestrini
  • Patent number: 6503278
    Abstract: This invention relates to a material that degrades after implantation into a patient's tissue, and resorbs into the patient's body, which material is manufactured of polymer, copolymer or polymer alloy. The material has a non-crystalline, i.e., amorphous structure and is molecularly oriented and reinforced by mechanical deformation. Further, the material can be formed into surgical devices, such as screws and pins, for implantation into a patient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Bionx Implants Oy
    Inventors: Timo Pohjonen, Pertti Törmälä
  • Patent number: 6503276
    Abstract: Intraocular lenses include a lens body sized and adapted for placement in a mammalian eye and having a plurality of different optical powers, and a movement assembly joined to the lens body and adapted to cooperate with the mammalian eye to effect accommodating movement of the lens body in the eye. Such intraocular lenses provide enhanced accommodation relative to the accommodation attainable using a single optical power IOL adapted for accommodating movement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Advanced Medical Optics
    Inventors: Alan I. Lang, Valdemar Portney, Stephen W. Laguette
  • Patent number: 6502576
    Abstract: This invention is a method for treating a patient diagnosed with atrial arrhythmia by forming a circumferential conduction block along a circumferential path of tissue in a pulmonary vein wall that circumscribes the pulmonary vein lumen and transects the electrical conductivity of the pulmonary vein such that conduction is blocked along the longitudinal axis of the vein wall and into the left atrial wall. The method is performed to treat a patient with a focal arrythmogenic origin along the pulmonary vein wall by either ablating the focal origin or by isolating the focal origin from the atrial wall with the circumferential conduction block. The circumferential conduction block is also formed in a pulmonary vein in order to bridge the adjacent ends of two linear lesions, wherein each linear lesion is formed to extend between the pulmonary vein and another adjacent pulmonary vein in a less-invasive “maze”-type procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventor: Michael D. Lesh
  • Patent number: 6491721
    Abstract: A method of selecting an intraocular lens material for toric lenses is disclosed. The method comprises determining the tack of the material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2002
    Assignee: Alcon Manufacturing, Ltd.
    Inventors: Charles Freeman, Mutlu Karakelle, Michael J. Simpson
  • Patent number: 6488709
    Abstract: An intraoocular lens implant (10) including an optic (12) and a haptic (20). The haptic (20) includes a first portion (22) extending outwardly in a first direction from the optic (12), a second portion (26) which has an outermost end (32), extending outwardly in a second opposing direction to the first portion (22), and a bend member (24) intermediate and interconnecting the first portion (22) and the second portion (26). An end of the first portion (22) remote from the bend member (24) is connected to the optic (12) at a haptic optic junction (29) and the outermost end (32) of the second portion (26) is located on a side of the haptic optic junction (29) opposite to the side on which the bend member (24) is located.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2002
    Inventor: Graham David Barrett
  • Patent number: 6485516
    Abstract: Artificial eye lenses which are to be replaced against the muddy natural lenses during a cataract operation, obtain a more efficient and sensitive accommodation with a quick and sufficient pull back power, if the centralizing spring haptics show a z-similar shape with a large square stone bridge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2002
    Inventor: Hans-Georg Boehm
  • Patent number: 6485515
    Abstract: The device comprises a prosthesis designed as a hollow body compressed against the action of restoring spring forces to a cross section reduced relative to an expanded use position, and held in this position by a strippable sheath. After the sheath is stripped, the prosthesis automatically expands to a cross section corresponding to the use position. The sheath, which can be a meshwork in the approximate form of crocheted material, extends over the entire length of the prosthesis and consists of at least one continuous thread and at least one drawstring. The prosthesis, held in the radially compressed position by the sheath, can be mounted displacebly on a feed wire or non-axially-displacebly on the insertion end of a probe or a catheter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2002
    Assignee: Boston Scientific Corporation
    Inventor: Ernst Peter Strecker
  • Patent number: 6477402
    Abstract: A guidewire advancement system for inserting catheter guidewires into blood vessels, and more particularly a guidewire dispensing system for the controlled sterile insertion of a coiled spring guidewire to avoid infection of the patient. The system provides for the transmission of an electrical signal by the guidewire to determine its location within the body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2002
    Assignee: Arrow International Investment Corp.
    Inventors: Arthur S. Lynch, A. Walter MacEachern
  • Patent number: 6464725
    Abstract: A lens system for implantation in a human eye which makes it possible to restore accommodation. The lens system comprises one anterior lens (2) and a posterior lens (4), out of these two lenses one has positive and the other has negative lens power. Accommodation is achieved by varying the distance between the two lenses. This lens system can be made so as to generate large changes in optical power for small changes in position. It also allows the amount of change in optical power for any given amount of change in distance between the lenses to be selected relatively independently of the optical power of the overall lens system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2002
    Inventor: Bernt Christian Skotton
  • Patent number: 6457474
    Abstract: A method of alleviating chest pain that stems from the heart, which method comprises: (a) noticing a pain in the chest; and then shortly thereafter (b) taking lime juice into the body to alleviate the chest pain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2002
    Inventor: Carl E. Hanson
  • Patent number: 6454800
    Abstract: A corneal onlay or corneal implant is disclosed which is to be placed within or onto the surface of the cornea, being a biocompatible, optically transparent, synthetic and biostable polymeric material, said material comprising a surface that supports the attachment and growth of tissue cells, and where the exterior surface of the implant onto which epithelial tissue is to be attracted and to become attached, or in the case of a corneal onlay the anterior surface of the onlay, has a topography comprising a plurality of surface indentations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: Novartis AG
    Inventors: Beatrice Ann Dalton, John Gerard Steele, Margaret Diana Macrea Evans, Janet Helen Fitton, Graham Johnson, Ilene Kay Gipson
  • Patent number: 6454801
    Abstract: A supplemental intraocular lenses may be attached to conventional primary intraocular lenses using annular wrap-around clamps or adhesive. New primary intraocular lens configurations have pockets for accommodating relatively small, supplemental intraocular lenses therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2002
    Assignee: Allergan
    Inventor: Valdemar Portney
  • Patent number: 6450171
    Abstract: The symptoms of congenital heart failure are addressed in this surgical procedure for mounting a patch in the ventricle of the heart to reduce ventricular volume. Placement of the patch is facilitated by palpating a beating heart to identify akinetic, although normal appearing, tissue. An apical patch having an oval configuration facilitates return of the heart to a normal apical shape which enhances muscle fiber efficiency and a normal writhing pumping action. An inferior patch having a triangular configuration can also be used. The patches include a semi-rigid ring, and a circumferential rim to address bleeding. Patch placement is further enhanced by creating a Fontan-type neck and use of pledged sutures. Intraoperative vascularization and valve replacement is easily accommodated. Increased injection fraction, reduced muscle stress, improved myocardial protection, and ease of accurate patch placement are all achieved with this procedure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2002
    Assignee: CorRestore, Inc.
    Inventors: Gerald D. Buckberg, Constantine L. Athanasuleas
  • Patent number: 6447477
    Abstract: A guide (100) is provided for biopsy and microtherapy which includes an introducer cannula (120) defining a lumen (125) sized to receive a diagnostic or therapeutic item therethrough and a lateral opening (124) in communication with the lumen (125) adjacent the first end (121) of the cannula (120). The invention also includes a solid tip (130) having an anatomically distal end (131) secured to the first end (121) of the cannula (120) and a proximal end (132) configured to pierce tissue. A ramp (135) is disposed within the cannula (120) at an end (136) of the lateral opening (124) adjacent the first end (121) of the cannula (120). The ramp (135) is inclined toward the lateral opening (124), whereby the item will be deflected through the lateral opening (124) as it advances within the lumen (125) and exits the cannula (120). In some embodiments, the item is a biopsy needle, ablation means or a radiopharmaceutical seed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2002
    Assignee: EMX, Inc.
    Inventors: Bryan T. Burney, David L. Schroeder, Michael E. Miller