U.S. Patent 8322455 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2012-12-04 and describes a “Manually driven surgical cutting and fastening instrument.” This patent has been cited 288 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 cutting and fastening instrument that includes an elongate channel that is attached to a handle assembly by an elongate shaft assembly. The elongate channel is configured to receive a cartridge and has a pivotally translatable anvil attached thereto and a knife bar supported therein. The anvil may be selectively opened and closed by manipulating a closure trigger supported by the handle assembly. The knife bar may be distally advanced through the elongate channel by actuating a firing trigger that cooperates with a reversible rotary drive supported by the handle assembly. The knife bar may also be retracted to its starting position by actuating the firing trigger after the reversible rotary drive has been shifted to a retraction orientation. Link: U.S. Patent 8322455

This patent was originally filed on 2006-06-27 which gives it a processing time of 2352 days, compared to an average processing time of 1309 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Eugene L. Timperman of Cincinnati, OH. The primary examiner was Rinaldi Rada.

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