U.S. Patent 7857185 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-12-28 and describes a “Disposable loading unit for surgical stapling apparatus.” This patent has been cited 454 times by other U.S. patents which places it in the top 500 cited patents since 2010 according to our law firm research, and makes it of the most innovative medical technology patents in the field of instruments. The abstract states:

A disposable loading unit for operable attachment to a surgical stapling apparatus. The disposable loading unit may have a carrier that supports a staple cartridge and an anvil assembly that is movable coupled to the carrier. The various embodiments may further have an axial drive assembly that is configured to impart a closing motion to the anvil assembly and also supports a cutting blade thereon. The axial drive assembly is configured to receive firing motions and retraction motions from the surgical stapling apparatus. Various embodiments have an anvil release assembly that enables the anvil assembly to be released from a clamping orientation in the event that the cutting blade becomes jammed during operation. Link: U.S. Patent 7857185

This patent was originally filed on 2008-02-14 which gives it a processing time of 1048 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is William D. Kelly of Mason, MI. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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