The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued Cardica Patent No. 7,918,376 for its proprietary Microcutter technology, in relation to the articulation of a surgical stapler or endocutter.
Cardica’s Microcutter surgical cutting and stapling product line is designed to provide multi-fire endoscopic stapling in a variety of procedures, including colorectal, thoracic and general surgery.
The Microcutter product line will cut and staple continuously, allowing a surgeon to complete successive deployments without removing the device for a cartridge reload.
The first device in the Microcutter product line that Cardica intends to commercialize, the Microcutter XPRESS 30, is 8 mm in diameter, compared to commercialized stapling products that are at least 12 mm in diameter.
Additional planned iterations of the Microcutter product line include the Microcutter XCHANGE 30, the Microcutter FLEXCHANGE 30 – designed to enable port-access surgeries, including robot-assisted surgery, Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) and Single-Incision Laparoscopic Surgery (SILS) interventions, all emerging surgical fields.
The Cardica Microcutter XPRESS 30 requires regulatory clearance through the 510(k) or other process with the FDA and is not yet commercially available in the US.
Cardica designs and manufactures proprietary stapling and anastomotic devices for cardiac and endoscopic surgical procedures.