U.S. Patent 8348131 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-01-08 and describes a “Surgical stapling instrument with mechanical indicator to show levels of tissue compression.” This patent has been cited 280 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:

Various forms of surgical instruments are disclosed. In various embodiments, the instrument includes a cartridge supporting assembly for operably supporting a staple cartridge therein. The cartridge supporting assembly may be responsive to firing and retraction motions applied thereto from a firing assembly. An anvil may be operably coupled to an anvil closure assembly. The anvil closure assembly may be constructed to selectively move the anvil in a proximal direction toward the cartridge supporting assembly to enable a portion of tissue to be clamped between a cartridge supported by the cartridge supporting assembly and the anvil under a predetermined amount of compression. The device may further include a closure actuator that operably interacts with the anvil closure assembly such that as the closure actuator is moved in a first direction, the anvil closure assembly causes the anvil to move in the proximal direction to increase the compression of the tissue between the staple cartridge and the anvil. A variable load generating member may cooperate with the anvil closure assembly and the closure actuator to apply a resistive load to the closure actuator in relation to an amount of compression applied to the tissue between the anvil and the staple cartridge. Link: U.S. Patent 8348131

This patent was originally filed on 2006-09-29 which gives it a processing time of 2293 days, compared to an average processing time of 1218 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Eugene L. Timperman of Cincinnati, OH. The assistant examiner was Gloria R Weeks.

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