Tissue gripping surgical forceps

Claim 1

Surgical forceps for atraumatically gripping tissue comprising a pair of opposed elongated members having confronting faces, said members including a rear resilient section and said members joined at said section such that said members are normally biased away from each other, said faces forcible into generally abutting relation with the application of a relatively small amount of pressure, the forward ends of said faces comprising a multiplicity of parallel and spaced rows of pyramidal teeth, the teeth on the opposing members being identical but transversely and longitudinally interdigitating when said faces are in said abutting relation but generally do not make direct contact, the rows of teeth being staggered such that the tips of said teeth are coincident with the spaces between a cluster of teeth on the opposing jaw, said teeth being adapted for use in surgical procedures requiring the gripping of thin layers of tissue, said tissue, when gripped, tending to fill the spaces between said teeth in an undulated configuration, whereby the tissue may be positively but atraumatically gripped.