Surgical stapling device

Abstract

A surgical stapling device loaded with staples each having a pair of parallel limbs bridged by a straight crosspiece. In operation, as the limbs are implanted by the device on opposite sides of a skin incision, they are bent inwardly toward each other below the skin surface to close the incision, the crosspiece being bent to create an arched air gap above the skin surface to allow space for post-operative swelling and to facilitate subsequent removal of the staple. In the device, a row of staples straddling a rail are advanced toward a metal mandrel projecting from the front end of the rail into an outlet. The mandrel, which has an arched formation, is flanked by a pair of abutments on the front end of the rail whereby the foremost staple in the advancing row is deposited onto the mandrel. Cooperating with the mandrel is a plate-like former whose leading edge has a recess therein leading to an inner arched section which conforms to the arched mandrel. When the device is actuated, the leading edge of the former which is normally retracted from the mandrel, advances toward the mandrel, the former sliding along the end abutments of the rail and causing the staple engaged thereby to emerge from the outlet, in the course of which movement the staple is implanted in the skin and is formed on the mandrel to assume the desired configuration.