Surgical stapler anvil with directionally biased staple pockets

SURGICAL STAPLER ANVIL WITH DIRECTIONALLY BIASED STAPLE An end effector (104) for a surgical stapling apparatus (10), the end effector (104) comprising: a cartridge assembly (108) supporting a plurality of staples, each staple of the plurality of staples including a backspan, a first leg, and a second leg, the first and second legs extending from the backspan; and an anvil assembly (106) coupled to the cartridge assembly (108), the anvil assembly (106) including an anvil (110) having opposed side surfaces, the anvil (110) defining a knife slot (116) and a plurality of biased staple-forming pockets (118) disposed between the opposed side surfaces of the anvil (110), each biased staple-forming pocket of the plurality of biased staple-forming pockets (118) positioned to form the first and second legs of a respective staple of the plurality of staples on one side of the backspan of the respective staple, the one side of the backspan being positioned toward the knife slot (116) of the anvil (110) relative to the opposed side surfaces of the anvil (110). co