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:
Jun. 08, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 06, 1997
William J Reimels, Scituate, MA (US);
Richard F Wenstrom, Jr, Norwood, MA (US);
Mitek Surgical Products, Inc., Westwood, MA (US);
Abstract
A device for grasping sutures includes an elongate housing and a hollow introducer needle attached to a distal end of the housing. The introducer needle has an open distal end having a sharpened, tissue penetrating edge. A suture grasping element is disposed in the open distal end of the introducer needle and is movable at least between first and second positions corresponding to the retracted and extended positions of the suture grasping element, respectively. The suture grasping element may consist of two jaws, one jaw having a pod located on a distal end thereof and one jaw being movable between opened and closed positions. In the closed position, the pod contacts a distal portion of the other jaw in a manner sufficient to retain a suture between the jaws. In additional embodiments, the suture grasping element may also consist of a substantially diamond-shaped wire loop or two wire-like member.