22210results about How to "Easy to place" patented technology

A valve prosthesis for implantation in the body by use of a catheter includes a stent made from an expandable cylinder-shaped thread structure including several spaced apices. The elastically collapsible valve is mounted on the stent as the commissural points of the valve are secured to the projecting apices. The valve prosthesis can be compressed around balloons of the balloon catheter and inserted in a channel, for instance, in the aorta. When the valve prosthesis is placed correctly, the balloons are inflated to expand the stent and wedge it against the wall of the aorta. The balloons are provided with beads to ensure a steady fastening of the valve prosthesis on the balloons during insertion and expansion. The valve prosthesis and the balloon catheter make it possible to insert a cardiac valve prosthesis without a surgical operation involving opening the thoracic cavity.

A device for use as a portal in percutaneous minimally invasive surgery performed within a patient's body cavity includes a first elongated hollow tube having a length adjusted with a self-contained mechanism. The first elongated tube includes an inner hollow tube and an outer hollow tube and the inner tube is adapted to slide within the outer tube thereby providing the self-contained length adjusting mechanism. This length-adjustment feature is advantageous for percutaneous access surgery in any body cavity. Two or more elongated tubes with adjustable lengths can be placed into two or more adjacent body cavities, respectively. Paths are opened within the tissue areas between the two or more body cavities, and are used to transfer devices and tools between the adjacent body cavities. This system of two or more elongated tubes with adjustable lengths is particularly advantageous in percutaneous minimally invasive spinal surgeries, and provides the benefits of minimizing long incisions, recovery time and post-operative complications.

A device for the transvascular implantation and fixation of prosthetic heart valves having a self-expanding heart valve stent (10) with a prosthetic heart valve (11) at its proximal end is introducible into a patient's main artery. With the objective of optimizing such a device to the extent that the prosthetic heart valve (11) can be implanted into a patient in a minimally-invasive procedure, to ensure optimal positioning accuracy of the prosthesis (11) in the patient's ventricle, the device includes a self-expanding positioning stent (20) introducible into an aortic valve positioned within a patient. The positioning stent is configured separately from the heart valve stent (10) so that the two stents respectively interact in their expanded states such that the heart valve stent (10) is held by the positioning stent (20) in a position in the patient's aorta relative the heart valve predefinable by the positioning stent (20).

There is provided a method and system for determining a distal cut thickness and posterior cut thickness for a femur in a knee replacement operation, the method comprising: performing a tibial cut on a tibia; performing soft tissue balancing based on a desired limb alignment; measuring an extension gap between the femur and said tibial cut while in extension; measuring a flexion gap between the femur and the tibial cut while in flexion; calculating a distal cut thickness and a posterior cut thickness for the femur using the extension gap and the flexion gap and taking into account a distal thickness and posterior thickness of a femoral implant; and performing said femoral cut according to the distal cut thickness and posterior cut thickness.

A surgical device for use in minimally invasive surgery in which body cavity is accessed by a surgeon though an access port defined by the device, the device including a body cavity engagement feature for insertion into the incision to locate the device in position, fixing feature with a ring that attaches the device to the patient's skin, and a toroid cell having a bladder filled with a liquid or a gel to prevent substantial leakage of gas from the body cavity and formed to mould about a substantial portion of a surgeon's hand or surgical instrument on insertion.

An apparatus for supplying surgical buttress material to a surgical stapler is provided. The apparatus has a pivotable area for attaching surgical buttress material. The apparatus may also have an adhesive and a release liner disposed over the buttress material.

Electric communication unit to be placed on a person's skin, comprising a support element (3), a series of body contacts (7), a pulse generator (6) provided for generating a series of pulses and for transmitting the series of pulses to said series of body contacts (7), said series of body contacts (7) being provided to transmit said series of pulses onto the skin of said person. The electric communication unit is in the form of a patch.

Context, or user intent, is used for improving targeting of advertisements and for generating competition among advertisers for valuable ad space. Advertisers can bid for placement on search results pages based on combinations of keywords and context categories, or keywords and contexts. Such bids are compared to one another so that appropriate ads can be selected and displayed. By taking context into account, improved ad targeting is accomplished.

A system and methods allowing the creation, integration, and transaction of advantages (e.g. desired environment features and/or elements). In an illustrative implementation, the system may operate partially or completely in a computing environment. Where a computing environment is employed, the computing environment may support a computing application running on a stand alone or networked computing system. The computing application may maintain a user interface portion, a processing portion, and cooperate with a database. In operation, a user may register his/her profile information with an advantages content provider such that when navigating through the computing application, the user have access to and purchase offered advantages and interact with interactive advertisements to purchase products and/or services. The advantages may be retrieved from a cooperating database and provided to the user. A record of the transaction is stored by the computing application in accordance to user profile so that the user may be properly charged for the transacted advantages or purchased products and/or services.

The present invention relates to a method for computer-controlled modelling of customised earpieces. These earpieces include housings for hearing aids, wireless or connected communication devices (headsets, mobile phones, personal agents), loud speakers, tinnitus masking devices, devices recording vibrations in the skull and transforming these into audio signals, voice recognition devices, earplugs, noise blockers with selective frequencies or sound levels, Man Machine Interface (MMI) products that enable clear communication even in the noisiest environments, or products related to wireless Internet applications. All these earpieces may be worn in the user's meatus and/or auditory canal. The invention also relates to a computerised system for manufacturing such customised earpieces. In particular, the invention is directed to a computerised system that models an earpiece based on a three-dimensional replica of the user's meatus and/or auditory canal.

The smart dynamic radiation pattern optimising system is a design and technique to actively shape & optimise the radiation pattern of mobile device controlled by smart RF/Antenna system with signal processing algorithm that works by sensing the change in device proximity environment with nature or property, range, orientation, position, location, signal quality parameters and ambient intelligence to protect the user by controlling radiation exposure, enhance RF signal quality and to save battery power. Mobile devices are handled in different proximity environment which influence the antenna performance due to electromagnetic interaction based on environments properties that leads to detuning, radiation pattern distortion, impedance mismatch etc which in turn degrades the signal quality. Also change in device orientation according to usage leads to power loss due to polarization mismatch. So when the signal quality degrades the system will sense & compute in an adaptive closed loop manner to actively optimise the radiation pattern according to scenarios. The design consist of (a) a sensor system 220 to determine the change in proximity environment [close vicinity] with sensing its property, sensing multi-direction, dimension, layer, position & range of proximity environment with respect to device, sensing device (antenna) orientation, visual sensing, infrared or thermal vision, user recognition, user head & hand hold effect, location, usage scenarios & operating modes and accordingly generate the trigger signal 230; (b) a processing unit 150 for computing the interrupt control signal 140 according to the nature of trigger signal & existing signal quality parameters; (c) Smart active radiation pattern optimiser 120 that works based on control signal; (d) Antenna system 110 capable of achieving dynamic radiation pattern coupled with radiation pattern optimiser that actively shapes and controls the radiation pattern accordingly to protect the user and also restores radiation according to scenarios to optimise communication. Other aspects of the present invention are the same sensor system 220 is utilised to develop an application that guides the user locate & position the mobile device in living space to achieve optimised performance, protect the mobile device from theft and ambient intelligence to alert & interact with the user.

The present invention relates to a wetness monitoring system that includes a data collection device that sends wetness measurement data to a central computer that detects changes in wetness measurement data caused by the presence of urine or other dielectric fluids. The data collection device includes a semi-reusable sensor and reusable data collector that are worn on a garment of the person. The data collector includes an internal power source so that the person can live a normal ambulatory life. The data collector has an electrical circuit that uses the changing resistance characteristics in the sensor to gather wetness measurement data. The data collector periodically generates and transmits a signal containing the actual wetness measurement data. The signals are coded to identify the particular data collector or person sending the signal. The data collector is programmed to conserve power by sending signals less frequently during periods when the sensor is clearly dry. Signals are sent more frequently when the sensor is damp or a wetness event may have occurred. The central computer receives the signals containing the wetness measurement data and compares the measurement data to an adjustable wetness sensitivity level to determine if a wetness event has occurred. When the central computer determines that a wetness event has occurred, the computer displays the name of the particular person wearing the data collector and the approximate time that the wetness event occurred. The system then pages an appropriate healthcare worker to inform them that the particular individual needs attention and tracks the approximate response times to ensure that the patient is continuously receiving prompt care.

The invention comprises a totally implantable hearing prosthesis for hearing impaired persons. An inertial vibrational element is hermetically sealed and implanted in bone between the lateral and superior semicircular canals without breaching the integrity of the canals. The vibrational element is adapted to vibrate the walls of the canals and the fluids contained therein, thereby vibrating contiguous fluids within the cochlea thus stimulating hair cells and creating a hearing percept. The invention can also be adapted to be a tinnitus masking system, and/or used in combination with a coehlear implant hearing system.

The present invention describes a catheter suitable for introduction into a tubular tissue for dissolving blockages in such tissue. The catheter is particularly useful for removing thrombi within blood vessels. In accordance with the preferred embodiments, a combination of vibrating motion and injection of a lysing agent is utilized to break up blockages in vessels. The vessels may be veins, arteries, ducts, intestines, or any lumen within the body that may become blocked from the material that flows through it. As a particular example, dissolution of vascular thrombi is facilitated by advancing a catheter through the occluded vessel, the catheter causing a vibrating, stirring action in and around the thrombus usually in combination with the dispensing of a thrombolytic agent such as urokinase into the thrombus. The catheter has an inflatable or expandable member near the distal tip which, when inflated or expanded, prevents the passage of dislodged thrombus around the catheter. The dislodged portions of thrombus are directed through a perfusion channel in the catheter, where they are removed by filtration means housed within the perfusion channel before the blood exits the tip of the catheter. Catheters that allow both frequency (1-1000 Hz) vibratory motion and delivery of such agents to a blockage and a method for using such catheters are disclosed.

The invention provides an intervertebral disk prosthesis. The prosthesis comprises: a first fixing element having both an anchoring first face for anchoring in one of the vertebrae and a co-operation second face; a second fixing element having both an anchoring first face for anchoring in the other vertebrae and a co-operation second face; a first prosthesis element having both an active first face and a co-operation second face, said co-operation faces of the first fixing element and of the first prosthesis element serving to fasten the two elements together; a second prosthesis element having both an active first face and a co-operation second face, said co-operation faces of the second fixing element and of the second prosthesis element serving to fasten the two elements together; and each of said active faces of the prosthesis elements defining at least a portion of a spherical cap that is respectively concave or convex.

Disclosed herein are a system and method for simultaneously reporting changes in location and orientation of an object moving over a planar surface and forming part of a computer input device, interoperably with a conventional mouse where reporting only location is in question. Further the present invention provides improved ways of user interaction with computer displays of two and three dimensional data and structures.

The methods and apparatus for lead placement on a surface of the heart are employed using an elongated body having proximal and distal end portions. The body defines a lead receiving passageway extending between a proximal inlet and a distal outlet for receiving a lead therethrough for contact with the heart surface. The elongated body is adapted for insertion between a pericardium and an epicardial surface. At least a portion of the body may have a non-circular cross-sectional shape adapted to retain the body orientation between the pericardium and the epicardial surface.

A system for distributing an electronic version of a printed document is disclosed. The system comprises a memory device storing at least one document file that is based at least in part on a source document, which is an electronic version of a printed document. The system further comprises a distribution system programmed for: responding to requests from a client for delivery of a document file; retrieving a file copy from the memory device; assigning at least one right to the file copy, the right defining at least one action capable of being performed on at least a portion of the file copy; encrypting the file copy with a key based at least in part on the identity of the client and on the at least one right; and providing the encrypted file copy, with the associated key, to the client.