Patent ID: 6916327

Claim:
A surgical staple for use in creating an evened anastomosis of at least two anatomical structures, the staple comprising a staple body constructed for bending and at least two everting elements connected to the staple body, the everting elements protruding from the staple body, the staple body and the everting elements being constructed and arranged so that when the staple body is bent around cut ends of the anatomical structures, the everting elements contact the anatomical structures at everting-element contact locations, the everting elements are in an apposed relationship, and the inner layers of the anatomical structures are held together between the everting elements to form the everted anastomosis; the staple further comprising at least two spacing elements connected to the staple body, the spacing elements being constructed and arranged so that when the staple body is bent around the cut ends of the anatomical structures, the spacing elements contact the anatomical structures at spacing-element contact locations, the spacing elements are in an apposed relationship, and the cut ends of the anatomical structures are held together between the spacing elements; wherein the spacing-element contact locations are closer to each other than the everting-element contact locations are to each other when the staple body is bent, such that the apposed everting elements are generally prevented from crushing the anatomical structures wherein the apposing spacing elements are closer than the apposing everting elements to a bend in the staple body about which the staple is bent around the cut ends of the anatomical structures and the everting elements are disposed closer to a lumen of the anastomosis than the spacing elements are to the lumen.