Patent ID: 8328062

Claim:
A surgical stapling instrument, comprising: a handle assembly; an elongated body portion extending distally from the handle assembly and defining a longitudinal axis; a shell assembly disposed adjacent a distal end of the elongated body portion, the shell assembly including a curvilinear tissue-contacting surface oriented obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis; an anvil assembly located in a plane that is oriented obliquely with respect to the longitudinal axis and having a non-planar tissue contacting surface, the non-planar tissue contacting surface divided into exactly two curvilinear segments, each curvilinear segment being symmetrical with the other curvilinear segment and each curvilinear segment including exactly one concave portion and exactly one convex portion, wherein the tissue-contacting surface of the anvil assembly is configured to align with the tissue-contacting surface of the shell assembly when the anvil assembly and shell assembly are in an approximated position.