U.S. Patent 8231041 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2012-07-31 and describes a “Variable compression surgical fastener cartridge.” This patent has been cited 300 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 tissue contacting surface 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 the inner and outer rows and configured such that a plurality of fasteners disposed in the inner row have a first diameter that is less than a second diameter 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, the pushers configured to eject an associated surgical fastener towards the respective depression in the anvil such that upon formation of a corresponding surgical fastener, the surgical fasteners ejected from the inner row provide a greater compressive force to tissue than the surgical fasteners ejected from the outer row. Link: U.S. Patent 8231041

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 John W. Beardsley of Nether Providence Township, PA. The assistant examiner was Robert Long.

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