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:
Sep. 14, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 01, 1996
Lee R Bolduc, Mountain View, CA (US);
Alan R Rapacki, San Francisco, CA (US);
Heartport, Inc., Redwood City, CA (US);
Abstract
A surgical instrument comprises a shaft, a clamp support at a distal end of the shaft, and a clamp comprising a pair of pivotally mounted jaws within the clamp support. A handle at a proximal end of the shaft comprises an actuator for both opening and closing the jaws of the clamp and for rotating the jaws of the clamp about a deflected axis defined by the clamp support. The actuator includes a lever and a rotatable wheel which are coupled to the clamp via a flexible drive cable extending through the shaft and clamp support. The device is particularly useful for manipulating and driving curved surgical needles in thoracoscopic, laparoscopic, and other endoscopic suturing procedures.