U.S. Patent 8034077 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-10-11 and describes a “Method for surgical stapling and cutting device with dual actuating control knob.” This patent has been cited 391 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 method for operating a surgical end effector, including providing a control shaft having a longitudinal axis with a distal end effector assembly at least partially actuated by a displacement of an actuating part along the longitudinal axis and providing the control shaft with a proximal handle connector having a rotating link operable to connect the control shaft to a control handle rotatably about the longitudinal axis. An end effector two-function control device is fixed rotationally to at least part of the control shaft to couple rotation of the two-function control device, the control shaft, and the end effector assembly about the longitudinal axis and is fixed longitudinally to the actuating part to couple longitudinal movement of the two-function control device and the actuating part with respect to the control shaft. Link: U.S. Patent 8034077

This patent was originally filed on 2009-12-08 which gives it a processing time of 672 days, compared to an average processing time of 1396 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Kevin W. Smith, Jr. of Coral Gables, FL. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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