U.S. Patent 7819297 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-10-26 and describes a “Surgical stapling apparatus with reprocessible handle assembly.” This patent has been cited 441 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 reusable surgical stapling apparatus that is configured for use with disposable loading units. Various embodiments include a first handle segment and a second handle segment that is detachably coupled to the first handle segment to form a handle housing. A firing assembly may be removably supported in the handle housing as a lift out removable unit for sterilization purposes. Various sterilization methods are disclosed. Link: U.S. Patent 7819297

This patent was originally filed on 2008-02-14 which gives it a processing time of 985 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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