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N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
• Is the blood going to leak past the staple?
• Is the bile going to leak?
• Is the anastomosis going to hold?
• Will the lung re-expand without breaking through the staple line
with the next breath?
Dr. Renton still remembers when his stapler malfunctioned during a case.
Not misfired. Malfunctioned.
The stapler fired all the way through, but its jaws, as though locked
in cement, wouldn't let go. Thankfully, the stapler rep was in the room.
He got his manager on the phone and they were able to dismantle the
stapler inside the patient. "Let's just say there's a lot of moving parts,
and we didn't have a sterile screwdriver," says Dr. Renton. "You don't
want to dismantle a stapler on the field."
Kidding aside, staplers that misfire or jam will surely draw your sur-
geons' ire. "The more uniform the staple formation, the better seal you
have" says Dr. Renton. "You want every staple to look like it's sup-
posed to look after you fire it." Across tissue or a vessel, staples
should fire like "the dotted center line on a highway," says Tina Frank,
RN, BSN, nurse man-
ager of the operating
room, endoscopy and
anesthesia technicians
at Pinnacle Health in
Harrisburg, Pa. The
key to perfectly
aligned staples is
choosing the proper
staple height and
width.
"One key physician
S U R G I C A L S T A P L I N G
EASE OF USE A study
shows that powered
stapling devices can
reduce surgeon
fatigue often experi-
enced when using
mechanical staplers.
