U.S. Patent 8231040 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2012-07-31 and describes a “Variable compression surgical fastener cartridge.” This patent has been cited 268 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 fastener applying apparatus comprising a cartridge body including a plurality of fastener retention slots arranged in a plurality of rows including at least an inner row and an outer row, a plurality of surgical fasteners disposed in inner and outer rows and configured such that a plurality of fasteners disposed in the inner row have a backspan that has a greater height than a backspan of a plurality of surgical fasteners disposed in the outer row, and an anvil having an inner row and an outer row of depressions for forming the fasteners. A plurality of pushers are operably associated with the plurality of surgical fasteners and configured to eject the surgical fasteners toward a respective depression in an anvil for formation thereof such that upon formation, the plurality of surgical fasteners ejected from the inner row provide a greater compressive force to tissue than the plurality of surgical fasteners ejected from the outer row. Link: U.S. Patent 8231040

This patent was originally filed on 2009-04-03 which gives it a processing time of 1215 days, compared to an average processing time of 1080 in the field. Tyco Healthcare Group LP has 1168 total patents. The first named inventor is Frank J. Viola of Sandy, UT. The assistant examiner was Michelle Lopez.

Select Patents monitors top medical technology patents and instruments patents which have been allowed and granted worldwide. If you would like legal advice regarding a patent or would like to file a patent go to https://selectpatents.wpengine.com/contact/