Surgical stapler with an end effector support
AssigneeEthicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.
InventorsMark S. Ortiz, Michael Stokes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A surgical stapler is provided having a cartridge arm for holding staples, an anvil pivotally connected thereto to deform fired staples from the cartridge arm, and a support for substantially preventing anvil deflection during staple firing to help insure proper staple formation. Some supports allow pivoting between the anvil and cartridge arm when in a first position, but prevent or hinder the pivoting action when in a second position. Supports can also be adapted to contact the anvil at a distal position relative to the pivot point between the anvil and cartridge arm. Exemplary structures of supports embodied as one or more links or as a sleeve are described. Methods of use are also discussed.
Claims25
A surgical stapler, comprising:
- an end effector having a cartridge arm for holding at least one staple, and an anvil pivotally coupled to the cartridge arm and effective to deform the at least one staple;
- and
- a support coupled to the end effector, the support having a distal end movable between a proximal-most position in which the anvil and cartridge arm can pivot between open-most and closed-most positions, and a distal-most position in which the distal end of the support engages at least at a mid-portion of the end effector to prevent deflection of the anvil when at least one staple is driven from the cartridge arm and deformed against the anvil.
A surgical stapler, comprising:
- a cartridge arm adapted to hold a plurality of staples;
- an anvil having proximal and distal ends, the proximal end being coupled to the cartridge arm at a pivot point, the anvil in a torqued configuration when a plurality of staples are driven from the cartridge arm and deformed against the anvil, and being in a non-torqued configuration when no staples are driven against the anvil;
- and
- a support coupled to the anvil and moveable between a proximal position and distal position, the support adapted to contact the anvil at a location distal to the pivot point to reduce deflection of the anvil in the torqued configuration relative to the non-torqued configuration, the support in the distal position
- (i) contacting at least a portion of the anvil at a location closer to the distal end of the anvil relative to when the support is in the proximal position, and,
- (ii) urging the anvil and cartridge arm toward a closed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.