U.S. Patent 8152041 was awarded to Tyco Healthcare Group LP on 2012-04-10 and describes a “Varying tissue compression aided by elastic members.” This patent has been cited 360 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:

The present disclosure relates to surgical fastener applying apparatus, and the application of variable compression to tissue. More specifically, the presently disclosed surgical fastener applying apparatus including a first jaw having proximal and distal ends and including an anvil member, the anvil member extending along a longitudinal axis and including a tissue contacting surface and a second jaw having proximal and distal ends movably coupled to the first jaw, the second jaw including a cartridge member and a channel. The surgical fastener applying apparatus further includes a pair of elastic members positioned between the cartridge member and the channel of the second jaw, the pair of elastic members configured and dimensioned to apply and maintain constant compressive forces to tissue regardless of tissue thickness. Link: U.S. Patent 8152041

This patent was originally filed on 2009-10-14 which gives it a processing time of 909 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 Stanislaw Kostrzewski of West Newton, PA. The primary examiner was Scott A. Smith.

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