Patent ID: 7972362

Claim:
A wound closure system comprising: (a) a plurality of skin anchors adapted to be attached to external skin tissue around a periphery of a wound; (b) a line adapted to extend between the skin anchors and around substantially the entire periphery of the wound without any portion the line penetrating through the skin tissue; (c) a biasing member that is separate from the line that is adapted to apply a continuous pulling force on the line to draw all of the skin anchors toward each other, wherein no portion of the biasing member is located inside the periphery of the wound when the wound closure system is set up, the biasing member adapted to apply a continuous pulling force on the line to keep the line taut between the skin anchors when the skin anchors move toward each other, wherein the biasing member includes a spring; and (d) a housing that houses the spring, the housing including a spool rotatably coupled to the housing, the spool coupled to the spring and adapted for winding the spring for the application of the continuous pulling force on the line, the housing and the spring including intermating structures adapted for winding the spring, wherein the intermating structures are adapted to slip with respect to each other when the spring has been fully wound to provide an indication that the spring is fully wound.