Patent ID: 7887563

Claim:
A method for closing an incision, comprising: advancing opposed legs of an undeformed surgical staple toward an incision to position a base of the staple extending between the opposed legs across the incision and to cause penetrative tips of the legs to penetrate through tissue on opposed sides of the incision; and deforming the surgical staple to move at least a portion of each leg within a plane to cause the penetrative tips of the opposed legs to advance toward one another along a substantially arcuate path and to pass one another to close completely, each of the legs having a leg dimension in a first direction perpendicular to and extending from the plane, at least a portion of the base being in the plane and the base having a base dimension in the first direction, each leg further including a compressive portion formed thereon that acts as a depth stop to limit a penetration depth of each leg through the tissue, the compressive portion having a compressive dimension in the first direction, the compressive dimension being greater than the leg dimension, wherein at least one of the penetrative tips substantially abuts at least one of the compressive portions when the penetrative tips are closed completely.