U.S. Patent 8430898 was awarded to Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. on 2013-04-30 and describes a “Ultrasonic surgical instruments.” This patent has been cited 244 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. The surgical instrument may comprise a transducer and an end effector. The transducer may be configured to provide vibrations along a longitudinal axis at a predetermined frequency and may comprise a piezoelectric stack positioned along the longitudinal axis. The transducer also may comprise a first metallic end mass positioned along the longitudinal axis adjacent a first end of the piezoelectric stack and a second metallic end mass positioned along the longitudinal axis adjacent a second end of the piezoelectric stack. The length of the transducer may be greater than or equal to of one wavelength and less than ½ of one wavelength. The end effector may be coupled to the transducer and may extend along the longitudinal axis. The length of the transducer and the end effector may be a multiple of ½ of one wavelength. Link: U.S. Patent 8430898

This patent was originally filed on 2007-07-31 which gives it a processing time of 2100 days, compared to an average processing time of 1818 in the field. Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has 2128 total patents. The first named inventor is Foster B. Stulen of Mason, MI. The assistant examiner was Ashley Cronin.

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