Surgical instrument having an asymmetric dynamic clamping member

#1. Technical Field

#The present disclosure relates generally to instruments for surgically joining tissue and, more specifically, to surgical instruments having curved jaw members and loading units for use therewith.

#2. Background of Related Art

#Various embodiments of the presently disclosed surgical instrument are disclosed herein with reference to the drawings, wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a surgical stapling instrument including a loading unit in accordance with the present disclosure;

#FIG. 1A is a perspective view of another type of surgical stapling instrument including the loading unit of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

#Embodiments of the presently disclosed surgical instrument, and loading unit for use therewith, are described in detail with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding elements in each of the several views. As is common in the art, the term ‘proximal” refers to that part or component closer to the user or operator, e.g., surgeon or physician, while the term “distal” refers to that part or component farther away from the user.

#A first type of surgical stapling instrument of the present disclosure is indicated as reference numeral 10 in FIG. 1. Another type of surgical stapling instrument of the present disclosure is indicated as reference numeral 10a in FIGS. 1A and 2. Additionally, while not explicitly shown, the present application also relates to surgical stapling instruments having parallel jaw members and to electrosurgical instruments used to join tissue. Collectively, all surgical instruments (including surgical stapling instruments 10 and 10a) are referred to herein as “surgical instrument” and referred to as reference numeral 10. Similarly, several features that are common to both surgical stapling instruments are collectively referred to as the same reference number (e.g., handle assembly 12, rotation knob 14, and endoscopic portion 18). Further details of an endoscopic surgical stapling instrument are described in detail in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,953,139 to Milliman et al., the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.

#A loading unit (or “DLU”) 500 for use with surgical instrument 10 is shown in FIGS. 3-10 and 28-30. DLU 500 is attachable to an elongated or endoscopic portion 18 of surgical instrument 10, e.g., to allow surgical instrument 10 to have greater versatility. DLU 500 may be configured for a single use, and/or may be configured to be used more than once. Examples of loading units for use with a surgical stapling instrument are disclosed in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,644 to Bolanos et al., the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein.