U.S. Patent 7861906 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2011-01-04 and describes a “Surgical stapling apparatus with articulatable components.” This patent has been cited 539 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 stapling apparatus for use with a disposable loading unit. Various embodiments include an elongated body assembly that comprises a distal body segment and a proximal body segment that are operably coupled together by an intermediate articulation joint such that the proximal body segment and the distal body segment define a longitudinal axis. The intermediate articulation joint may be configured to facilitate articulation of the distal body segment about an intermediate articulation axis that is substantially transverse to the longitudinal axis. The elongated body assembly may be configured to transfer actuation motions from an actuation shaft housed in a handle assembly to the disposable loading unit. In various embodiments, the intermediate articulation joint may be adjacent to the handle assembly. Link: U.S. Patent 7861906

This patent was originally filed on 2008-02-14 which gives it a processing time of 1055 days, compared to an average processing time of 1097 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is William D. Kelly of Mason, MI. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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