US Patent 7195142 End-to-end anastomosis instrument and method for performing same

A surgical instrument for performing an end-to-end anastomosis of first and second luminal structures includes a housing having at least one actuator attached thereto and a selectively removable loading unit engageable at a distal end of the housing. The actuator includes a cam member having at least one cam follower which rides along a corresponding cam slot defined within the cam member. A plurality of surgical fasteners is releasably supported in an array-like fashion in a distal end of the loading unit. The plurality of surgical fasteners is simultaneously deformable upon activation of the actuator to complete the end-to-end anastomosis wherein the resulting eversion is exterior to the luminal structures.