Patent ID: 8915929

Claim:
A method of forming an intersection between the esophagus and the stomach, comprising the steps of: introducing a device down a patient's esophagus and into the patient's stomach, the device having a shaft and a plurality of vacuum orifices on the shaft for grasping esophageal tissue and a plurality of tissue displacing elements coupled to the shaft, the shaft defining a longitudinal axis; the introducing step is carried out with the device having the plurality of tissue displacing elements coupled to the shaft; the introducing step is carried out with the device having a common retractor and the shaft including a primary shaft and a secondary shaft, the common retractor being slidably coupled to the primary shaft, the common retractor being coupled to each of the plurality of tissue displacing elements, the common retractor being movable relative to the primary shaft to further displace tissue held by each of the plurality of tissue displacing elements, the common retractor being configured to displace the plurality of tissue displacing elements simultaneously; the introducing step is carried out with the common retractor including a slot, wherein at least one of the plurality of tissue displacing elements is positioned within the slot, the at least one tissue displacing element having a central axis which translates within the slot; grasping esophageal tissue with the plurality of vacuum orifices; inserting the tissue displacing elements into stomach tissue; the inserting step being carried out with each of the plurality of tissue displacing elements being inserted into stomach tissue; simultaneously displacing the tissue displacing elements by drawing the tissue displacing elements into a tissue shaper thereby pulling the stomach tissue into the tissue shaper to reshape the stomach tissue into a fold of tissue while keeping the esophageal tissue stationary relative to the stomach tissue; the displacing step is carried out with the plurality of tissue displacing elements being displaced to reshape the stomach tissue into the fold of tissue; and fastening the stomach tissue together to form the fold of tissue.