Patent ID: 11877745
Assignee: CILAG GMBH INTERNATIONAL
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 16:
17. A surgical stapling assembly, comprising:
(a) a cartridge body defining a slot extending along a longitudinal axis, wherein cavities are defined in the cartridge body; and
(b) a fastener removably positioned in each of the cavities and having a crown, a proximal fastener leg, and a distal fastener leg, and wherein the fasteners are arranged in a plurality of rows comprising:
(i) an outer row on a first side of the slot and comprising outer fasteners oriented at an outer angle relative to the longitudinal axis;
(ii) an intermediate row on the first side of the slot and comprising intermediate fasteners oriented at an intermediate angle relative to the longitudinal axis; and
(iii) an inner row on the first side of the slot and comprising inner fasteners oriented at an inner angle relative to the longitudinal axis, wherein the inner angle, the intermediate angle, and the outer angle are different, and wherein the legs are arranged in longitudinally-repeating first fastener leg regions between longitudinally-repeating second fastener leg regions,

wherein each first fastener leg region includes an outer distal fastener leg of an outer fastener positioned in the outer row, an intermediate proximal fastener leg of a first intermediate fastener positioned in the intermediate row, and an inner distal fastener leg of an inner fastener positioned in the inner row,
wherein each second fastener leg region includes an outer proximal fastener leg of the outer fastener positioned in the outer row, an intermediate distal fastener leg of a second intermediate fastener positioned in the intermediate row, and an inner proximal fastener leg of the inner fastener positioned in the inner row,
wherein the intermediate proximal fastener leg is distal to the inner proximal fastener leg and proximal to the inner distal fastener leg, and
wherein the first fastener leg region defines a first maximum distance between the intermediate proximal fastener leg and either of the outer distal fastener leg or the inner distal fastener leg, and the second fastener leg region defines a second maximum distance between the intermediate distal fastener leg and either of the inner proximal fastener leg or the outer proximal fastener leg, wherein the second maximum distance is greater than the first maximum distance,
wherein each of the outer fasteners and each of the intermediate fasteners has the same crown length.