The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 10, 1998
Filed:
Jun. 07, 1995
Roger A de la Torre, Lake St. Louis, MO (US);
James Stephen Scott, St. Charles, MO (US);
James E Jerivs, Atherton, CA (US);
Kenneth H Mollenauer, Santa Clara, CA (US);
General Surgical Innovations, Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
A surgical instrument facilitates tying of a knot in a length of suture material at a remote surgical location. The instrument is comprised of an inner rod having a length of suture wrapped over the rod in a particular pattern. A needle may be secured to a free end of the suture and the pattern of wrapping the suture on the rod enables loops of suture to move off the rod end and over the needle to form a knot in the suture. The inner rod is received in an interior bore of an outer rod for manually controlled reciprocating movement therein. The inner rod is manually retracted into the interior bore of the outer rod to cause the outer rod to move the loops of suture off the inner rod end and over the needle in forming a knot in the suture. An extendable filament is contained in the inner rod and has a connector at its distal end for holding the free end of the suture. The distal end is curved, so that extending the filament from the inner rod causes it to pass the suture around and behind a tissue to be ligated where the suture may be taken from the filament by a grasper. Pairs of prongs are also provided on the distal ends of the inner and outer rods for sequentially ejecting pre-tied suture knots off the distal end of the inner rod.