Patent ID: 7309341

Claim:
A surgical instrument comprising: a surgical instrument for implanting an anastomotic ring device comprising a woven tube of wire having outer loops or ends which thermally deform and evert when inserted into walls of two adjacent lumens at a luminal interface of an anastomotic site, the ends of the tube everting to form petals in a manner which holds the luminal interface of the anastomotic site into apposition, comprising: an actuating member formed of a plurality of proximal leaves and a plurality of distal leaves which each leaf outwardly actuates by a cantilevered, hinged relationship to a central portion of the actuating member, configured to receive an anastomotic ring and moveable between a cylindrical, unactuated position and a hollow rivet forming shape in response to a compressive actuating force; a plurality of distal engaging surfaces, each formed on a respective distal leaf spaced away from the central portion and positioned to engage a selected outer loop of a distal portion of the unactuated, cylindrical anastomotic ring for pulling the engaged outer loop proximally and outwardly during actuation; a plurality of proximal engaging surfaces, each formed on a respective proximal leaf spaced away from the central portion and positioned to engage a selected outer loop a proximal portion of the unactuated, cylindrical anastomotic ring for pulling the engaged outer loop distally and outwardly during actuation; a handle including an actuation mechanism for producing the compressive actuating force; and an elongate cannula connecting the handle to the actuating member and operably configured to position the distal leaves on a distal side of an anastomotic opening and to position the proximal leaves on a proximal side of the anastomotic opening, and configured to transfer the compressive actuating force from the handle to the actuating member wherein the handle is further operably configured to produce the compressive actuating force by producing a proximally directed longitudinal motion and a distally directed longitudinal motion, the elongate cannula operably configured to separately transfer the proximally and distally directed longitudinal motions respectively to distal and proximal portions of the actuating member to pivot corresponding distal and proximal leaves toward each other to actuate the anastomotic ring device from a cylinder shape to a hollow rivet shape, wherein the elongate cannula comprises a first tube connected to the proximal portion of the actuating member and a second tube slidingly received in the tube and connected to the distal portion of the actuating members and a third tube interposed between the first and second tubes and distally engaged to a central portion of the actuating member.