Patent ID: 7517356

Claim:
A method for enhancing one or more properties of body tissue to be repaired or joined by surgical staples comprising the steps of: providing a surgical stapler including a staple anvil and a staple cartridge each positioned adjacent a distal end of the surgical stapler and operable in juxtaposition relative to each other, the staple cartridge including: a working surface; one or more rows of individual staple slots formed in the working surface; a plurality of surgical staples individually disposed within the individual staple slots; a driving member for firing the surgical staples from their slots and against the staple anvil; a body tissue property enhancing system configured and adapted to enhance one or more properties of the body tissue to be repaired or joined by the surgical staples formed by firing them into body tissue, the body tissue property enhancing system including a reservoir of biocompatible wound closure material and a plurality of ducts in communication with the reservoir and the working surface of the cartridge; and a plurality of deployable needles each having a tip, the needles being adapted and disposed in the ducts such that the tips can be extended out of the working surface of the staple cartridge to penetrate at least a layer of adjacent layers of body tissue and to allow the biocompatible wound closure material to be delivered through the needles to penetrate one or more layers of body tissue; approximating the staple anvil and staple cartridge with adjacent layers of body tissue therebetween; and firing the surgical stapler, wherein firing of the surgical stapler includes driving the plurality of surgical staples through the adjacent layers of body tissue to mechanically secure the layers of body tissue together and concomitantly activating the body tissue enhancing system to enhance one or more properties of the adjacent layers of repaired or joined body tissue.