US 7,473,224 B2
Deployable ultrasound medical transducers
Inder Raj. S. Makin, Loveland, Ohio (US)
Assigned to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio (US)
Filed on May 22, 2002, as Appl. No. 10/153,122.
Claims priority of provisional application 60/294135, filed on May 29, 2001.
Prior Publication US 2003/0013970 A1, Jan. 16, 2003
Int. Cl. A61B 8/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 600—439  [600/459; 600/437; 600/462] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An ultrasound medical system comprising:
a) a tube having a distal end insertable into a patient and having a lumen with a distal opening; and
b) a plurality of resiliently flexible fingers which are extendable out of the distal opening of the lumen creating a deployed state and which are at-least-partially retractable into the distal opening of the lumen creating a stowed state, wherein each finger has an unattached distal end, wherein each finger includes an ultrasound transducer having an ultrasound-emitting non-convex surface, and wherein the distance between the transducers of adjacent fingers is greater in the deployed state than in the stowed state.