Jaw assembly for surgical devices
AssigneeEthicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.
InventorsDavid Stefanchik, Omar J. Vakharia, William B. Weisenburgh, II
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Abstract
Surgical devices are disclosed herein that generally include an intracorporeal elbow joint to facilitate translational movement of an end effector while allowing a body portion of the surgical device and a trocar or working channel through which the device is inserted to be maintained in a fixed angular orientation relative to the patient. This allows a plurality of such devices to be used effectively with a single incision or access device. Such devices also generally provide end effector movement with six degrees of freedom, while maintaining a mechanical linkage between the user and the end effector and while mimicking and/or mirroring natural user movement. Various methods related to such devices are also disclosed.
Claims11
An end effector assembly comprising:
- first and second major jaws pivotally coupled to each other about a first pivot joint;
- first and second minor jaws pivotally coupled to each other about a second pivot joint;
- wherein a distal end of the first minor jaw is pivotally coupled to the first major jaw by a first pivot pin that extends through the first minor jaw and a distal end of the second minor jaw is pivotally coupled to the second major jaw by a second pivot pin that extends through the second minor jaw.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.