U.S. Patent 7673782 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2010-03-09 and describes a “Surgical stapling instrument having a releasable buttress material.” This patent has been cited 468 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 stapler including an anvil, a staple cartridge, and a buttress material removably retained to the anvil and/or staple cartridge. In various embodiments, the staple cartridge can include at least one staple removably stored therein which can, when deployed, or fired, therefrom, contact the buttress material and remove the buttress material from the anvil and/or staple cartridge. In at least one embodiment, the anvil can include at least one lip and/or groove configured to removably retain the buttress material to the anvil until deformable members extending from the surgical staple are bent by the anvil and are directed toward and contact the buttress material. Link: U.S. Patent 7673782

This patent was originally filed on 2007-06-29 which gives it a processing time of 984 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 Christopher J. Hess of Cincinnati, OH. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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