US Patent Issued to CILAG GMBH INTERNATIONAL on Nov. 4 for "Deflectable firing member for surgical stapler" (Ohio Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,458,348, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to CILAG GMBH INTERNATIONAL (Zug, Switzerland).

"Deflectable firing member for surgical stapler" was invented by Frederick E. Shelton IV (Hillsboro, Ohio), Kevin M. Fiebig (Cincinnati), Gregory J. Bakos (Mason, Ohio), Michael J. Vendely (Lebanon, Ohio) and Adam D. Hensel (Cincinnati).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surgical stapling instrument includes a shaft assembly, an end effector, and a flexible firing member. The end effector includes a driving assembly translatable distally relative to a first jaw and a second jaw to thereby transition the first and second jaws from an open state to a closed...