PATENT OF THE WEEK – ARTICULATING ENDOSCOPIC SURGICAL APPARATUS

Articulating endoscopic surgical apparatus was invented by Boris Zvenyatsky, Ernest Aranyi and H. Jonathan Tovey which is currently assigned to United States Surgical Corp. The invention was patented by USPTO on 16th June, 1998 bearing patent No. US5766205A.

The current invention is a laparoscopic and endoscopic surgical instrument, with an end piece that can be articulated in the body of a patient for grasping, dissecting, clamping, or retracting materials or tissue during surgical procedures.

The instrument includes a handle portion and an endoscopic portion. The endoscopic portion has an elongated tubular section having opposed proximal and distal ends, the proximal end of which extends from the handle portion to articulating section. A linkage mechanism is controlled from the handle portion which is associated with the endoscopic portion of the instrument for selectively pivoting the articulating section in an angular plane relative to the longitudinal axis of the tubular section within about a 90° sector of rotation