Patent ID: 7585307

Claim:
A surgical stapler system for joining a graft and a tubular structure by a surgical stapling procedure, comprising: a detachable loading unit including a circumferential line of staples adapted to hold said graft in position in a body and deploy said staples through said graft and an overlapping end of said tubular structure; a wand for introducing said loading unit and said graft into said body, positioning said loading unit and said graft within said tubular structure, and holding said loading unit and said graft in place during at least a portion of said procedure; a guidewire joined with an end of said loading unit and extending from an opposite end of said loading unit, said guidewire being configured to extend out of said graft and said body; and a stapling instrument that is independent from said loading unit in a first position, said first position being exterior to said body while said loading unit is located inside said body, said stapling instrument adapted to be connected to said loading unit via said guidewire thereby positioning said stapling instrument in a second position, said second position being located inside said body, said stapling instrument having a plurality of anvils and a trigger mechanism for firing said staples in said loading unit when said stapling instrument is connected to said loading unit in said second position, wherein upon actuating said trigger mechanism said staples deploy radially outward through said graft and said tubular structure, strike said anvils, and bend inwardly.