US Patent Issued to Cilag GmbH International on Dec. 23 for "Surgical instruments with flexible firing member actuator constraint arrangements" (Ohio, California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,502,171, issued on Dec. 23, was assigned to Cilag GmbH International (Zug, Switzerland).

"Surgical instruments with flexible firing member actuator constraint arrangements" was invented by Steven G. Hall (Cincinnati) and Spencer J. Witte (Los Altos, Calif.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Articulatable surgical instruments that include a firing system configured to selectively move a firing member between a starting position and an ending position. The firing system includes a flexible upper drive member that axially passes through a flexible upper hollow member to provide upper axial drive motions to the firing member. The firing system a...