ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 28 -- United States Patent no. 12,690,866, issued on July 28, was assigned to Intuitive Surgical Operations Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.).
"Surgical instrument with lockout mechanism" was invented by Matthew Wixey (San Jose, Calif.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Surgical instruments, such as clamping and cutting instruments, are provided. In one aspect, a surgical stapling instrument comprises first and second jaws and a drive member configured to move in a distal direction through at least one of the jaws. The instrument further includes a locking member movable between a first position permitting distal translation of the drive member, and a second position impeding distal ...