Importance

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Abstract

A surgical suturing apparatus for closing an incision penetrating a plurality of layers of tissue includes a tubular body in which a 'J'-shaped suture needle resides. In this position the tubular body may be inserted into the incision without damaging tissue. Once the tubular body has been inserted into the incision, the pointed end and suture gate of the suture needle are deployable out of a slot through the side of the tubular body to permit deep suturing of tissue layers without also suturing surface tissue layers. Several embodiments are presented for deploying the needle, including one in which the straight section of the suture needle having the pointed tip is biased to flare away from the other straight section of the suture needle, and the deploying is accomplished by moving the pointed tip section adjacent the tubular body slot and permitting the bias to cause that section to flare out of the slot.

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First Claim