Inventions and Innovations Related to Better Results in Intestinal Anastomosis: a Patent Review

Objective: To evaluate new techniques and improvements in surgical instruments related to intestinal anastomosis procedures. Methods: A search was conducted on the free database of patents from the National Institute of Industrial Patent Office (INPI) and The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Were analyzed all occurrences between 2012 and 2016 related to experimental surgery and intestinal anastomosis. The requests for patents were examined individually and the data collected was the nationality of the applicant, if was physical (PP) or legal (LP) person and if was innovation or invention. At the end, a comparative analysis between the two institutions was performed. Results: In INPI was found only 5 occurrences. All of them were deposited by legal entity and were inventions. In addition, only one was a national request. In USPTO database, 65 occurrences met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 48 were national applications and only 5 were filed by physical person. Conclusion: More requests were found in US database, predominating national trustee and greater solicitation to inventions than Brazilian database. The main applications for patents are invention of surgical instruments, the development of new biological glues and improvement of mechanical sutures. Keywords: patents, gastroenterology, surgical anastomosis.