Surgical buttress reload and tip attachment assemblies for surgical stapling apparatus
AssigneeCovidien LP
InventorJohn W. Beardsley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A surgical stapling apparatus includes a handle assembly, an elongate tubular body, a loading unit including an anvil assembly and a staple cartridge assembly, and a reload assembly. The reload assembly includes a staple cartridge releasably disposed within the staple cartridge assembly of the loading unit, a cartridge buttress releasably secured to the staple cartridge, and an anvil buttress including a proximal portion releasably secured to the staple cartridge and a distal portion releasably coupled to the anvil assembly of the loading unit.
Claims20
A surgical stapling apparatus comprising:
- a loading unit including:
- a staple cartridge assembly;
- and
- an anvil assembly including a tissue facing surface;
- and
- a reload assembly, the reload assembly including:
- a staple cartridge;
- an anvil adapter including a body having an anvil facing surface and a tissue facing surface;
- and
- an anvil buttress,
- the reload assembly having an assembled state in which a proximal portion of the anvil buttress is releasably secured to the staple cartridge and a distal portion of the anvil buttress is releasably secured to the anvil adapter, the reload assembly releasably coupled to the loading unit in the assembled state with the staple cartridge releasably disposed within the staple cartridge assembly and the anvil adapter releasably coupled to the anvil assembly, the anvil facing surface of the anvil adapter positioned against the tissue facing surface of the anvil assembly.
A method of loading a reload assembly onto a loading unit, the method comprising:
- releasably coupling a reload assembly to a loading unit in an assembled state,
- the loading unit including:
- a staple cartridge assembly;
- and
- an anvil assembly having a tissue facing surface;
- and
- the reload assembly including:
- a staple cartridge;
- an anvil adapter including a body having an anvil facing surface and a tissue facing surface;
- and
- an anvil buttress,
- wherein the reload assembly is in the assembled state, a proximal portion of the anvil buttress is releasably secured to the staple cartridge and a distal portion of the anvil buttress is releasably secured to the anvil adapter,
- the reload assembly releasably coupled to the loading unit in the assembled state by:
- releasably positioning the staple cartridge within the staple cartridge assembly;
- and
- releasably coupling the anvil adapter to the anvil assembly with the anvil facing surface of the anvil adapter positioned against the tissue facing surface of the anvil assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.