Surgical Instrument Including Inductively Coupled Accessory
AssigneeCovidien LP
InventorFrank J. Viola
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A surgical instrument system includes a surgical instrument, a power supply, and an accessory. The surgical instrument has a first induction device positioned therein. The power supply is electrically coupled to the first induction device. The accessory is selectively operably couplable to the surgical instrument. The accessory includes a second induction device that is inductively coupled with the first induction device when the accessory is operably coupled to the surgical instrument such that the power supply provides power to the accessory.
Claims21
(canceled)
A surgical instrument, comprising:
- a power supply;
- a handle assembly having a shaft extending therefrom;
- a first induction device supported by the shaft and electrically coupled to the power supply;
- and
- an accessory removably coupled to the shaft and including a second induction device, the second induction device inductively coupled with the first induction device to enable the power supply to power the accessory.
A surgical instrument system, comprising:
- a power supply;
- a surgical instrument having a handle assembly and a shaft extending from the handle assembly;
- and
- an accessory removably coupled to the shaft to enable the power supply to transmit electrical current to the accessory via induction to power the accessory.
A method of powering an accessory for a surgical instrument, the method comprising:
- removably coupling an independent accessory to a shaft of a surgical instrument;
- and
- inductively coupling the accessory to the shaft to power the accessory with a power supply operatively associated with the surgical instrument.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.