U.S. Patent 7731072 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-06-08 and describes a “Surgical stapling and cutting instrument with improved anvil opening features.” This patent has been cited 437 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 that has an elongate channel assembly configured to operably support a staple cartridge therein. An anvil assembly may be movably and detachably coupled to the elongate channel assembly. In various embodiments, the anvil assembly may have a pair of trunnions pivotally received in open-ended slots in the elongate channel assembly. The trunnions may be retained in the opened ended slots by a selectively movable trunnion retention bar or by a closure member configured to apply a closing motion to the anvil. In other embodiments, a knife assembly may be supported within the elongate channel assembly for axial travel therein. The knife assembly may be provided with a detachable pin that is configured to ride in a slot in the anvil as the knife assembly is driven in the elongate channel assembly to draw the anvil assembly toward the elongate channel assembly. The pin is configured to be detached from the knife assembly to enable the anvil assembly to be detached therefrom. Link: U.S. Patent 7731072

This patent was originally filed on 2007-06-18 which gives it a processing time of 1086 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 Jeffrey S. Swayze of Hamilton, MI. The primary examiner was Rinaldi I. Rada.

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