U.S. Patent 8038046 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-10-18 and describes a “Electrical surgical instrument with optimized power supply and drive.” This patent has been cited 369 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 surgical instrument includes an end effector having an actuation assembly to effect a surgical procedure when actuated. An electric motor has a rated operating voltage and is operationally connected to the end effector to operate the actuation assembly. A power supply is electrically connected to the motor and selectively powers the motor to actuate the actuation assembly at least 1 and less than 16 times during a clinical life of at least one of the end effector, the motor, or the power supply. The power supply has a battery cell with a critical current rate. When activated to power the motor and actuate the actuation assembly, the power supply operates the battery cell at a super-critical current rate during a non-zero super-critical pulse discharge period lasting less than approximately 16 seconds. The power supply operates the motor above the rated operating voltage during the super-critical pulse discharge period. Link: U.S. Patent 8038046

This patent was originally filed on 2007-02-12 which gives it a processing time of 1709 days, compared to an average processing time of 1226 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Thomas O. Bales, Jr. of Miami, FL. The assistant examiner was Gloria R Weeks.

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