U.S. Patent 8540131 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-09-24 and describes a “Surgical staple cartridges with tissue tethers for manipulating divided tissue and methods of using same.” This patent has been cited 319 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:

Surgical staple cartridges and methods for manipulating the severed ends of divided tissue. In various forms, the staple cartridge has at least one base material temporarily supported thereon that is oriented to be stapled to a corresponding end of the divided tissue. At least one elongated tether is non-removably affixed to each piece of base material. Once the base material is stapled to the corresponding piece of divided tissue, the clinician may manipulate that pieced of divided tissue by applying manipulation motions to the tether. Corresponding grooves or pockets may be provided on the cartridge body for temporarily supporting the tethers therein. Link: U.S. Patent 8540131

This patent was originally filed on 2011-03-15 which gives it a processing time of 924 days, compared to an average processing time of 837 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Jeffrey S. Swayze of Hamilton, MI. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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