Patent ID: 11931029
Assignee: CILAG GMBH INTERNATIONAL
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A | IPC A

Claim 18:
19. A surgical instrument, comprising:
(a) a body;
(b) a shaft extending distally from the body;
(c) a motor configured to couple with a power source;
(d) a firing assembly coupled with the motor;
(e) an end effector disposed at a distal end of the shaft, wherein the motor is activatable to actuate the firing assembly of the surgical instrument through a firing stroke to staple and sever tissue with the end effector; and
(f) a control circuit operatively coupled to
a strain gauge configured to enable the control circuit to determine an applied stress experienced by the firing assembly during a firing stroke; and

(g) a remote processor configured to determine a cumulative applied stress experienced by the firing assembly over the course of multiple firing strokes
wherein responsive to the cumulative applied stress reaching or exceeding a predetermined threshold, the remote processor is further configured to initiate at least one of:
(i) providing a notification to a user, or
(ii) disabling the firing assembly.