Patent ID: 8579177

Claim:
A surgical instrument for operating on tissue, comprising: an end effector including a first tissue engaging member and a second tissue engaging member in juxtaposed relation to the first tissue engaging member, at least one of the first and second tissue engaging members movable from a first configuration for positioning tissue therebetween to second configuration for compressing tissue; and a gap determination element disposed on the surgical instrument and configured to measure a gap distance between the first tissue engaging member and the second tissue engaging member; at least one tissue contact determining element positioned on each of the first and second tissue engaging members and contactable with tissue positioned therebetween; and a processor in operative communication with the gap determination element and each of the at least one tissue contact determining element, the processor configured to measure voltages generated by the gap determination element and receive signals provided by each of the at least one tissue contact determining element for determining when tissue is sufficiently compressed.