Surgical stapling assembly having resiliently mounted anvil

Claim 1

A surgical stapling assembly for use with an actuator assembly for simultaneously forming a plurality of surgical staples in body tissue comprising an anvil support member, resilient means mounted on the anvil support member, an anvil member mounted on the resilient means, a staple holding assembly, and means mounting the staple holding assembly relative to the anvil support member for movement into spaced relation to the anvil member to clamp tissue inserted therebetween, said staple holding assembly containing a plurality of surgical staples and including staple driving means for simultaneously driving all of the staples from the staple holding assembly through the clamped tissue and then into contact with the anvil member to crimp the staples, said anvil member being mounted on said resilient means so that when the stapling assembly is overloaded with tissue and the anvil member and staple holding assembly are moved into spaced relation, the anvil member is displaced, relative to the staple holding assembly, a distance sufficient to reduce pressure on the overloaded tissue, said displacement being such that the distance between the staple holding assembly and the displaced anvil member is less than the length of the legs of the uncrimped surgical staples.