A Comparison of the Preclinical Performance of the Echelon™+ Stapler with Thunderbird Reloads to Two Commercial Endoscopic Surgical Staplers

Figures & data

Figure 1 The Echelon+ Stapler with Thunderbird reloads.

Figure 2 Staple Form Quality categories. Scores of 1–2 were considered well-formed, whereas 3–5 were considered malformed.

Table 1 Summary of Comparisons Between Staplers

Test	Ethicon Echelon + TBGST	Reach Anzhi	p-value vs Echelon + TBGST	Fulbright Lunar	p-value vs Echelon + TBGST
Gastric Staple Form Quality, %malformed	0.6% (17/2816)	7.1% (203/2874)	<0.001	18.6% (523/2816)	<0.001
Bronchus air leak onset pressure, mean ± st dev	205.2 ± 54.9 mmHg (n=32)	131.2 ± 50.8 mmHg (n=32)	<0.001	221.6 ± 42.6 mm Hg (n=32)	0.187
Bronchus air leak onset pressure <88 mmHg	0.0% (0/32)	21.9% (7/32)	0.011	0.0% (0/32)	1.000
Colon fluid leak onset pressure, median	35.7 mmHg (n=32)	17.2 mmHg (n=35)	<0.001	17.7 mmHg (n=34)	<0.001
Colon fluid leak onset pressure <30 mmHg	25.0% (8/32)	94.3% (33/35)	<0.001	82.4% (28/34)	<0.001

Figure 3 Percentage of malformed staples by SFQ (Staple Form Quality) category for Echelon+ TBGST, Reach Anzhi and Fulbright Lunar staplers in gastric tissue.

Figure 4 Boxplot of bronchus air leak pressures for Echelon+ TBGST, Reach Anzhi and Fulbright Lunar staplers. Dotted lines represent target minimum values of 88 mmHg. Circles represent individual points, whereas those with a cross show statistical outliers. An asterisk represents a significant difference versus Echelon+ TBGST.

Figure 5 Boxplot of colon fluid leak pressures for Echelon+ TBGST, Reach Anzhi and Fulbright Lunar staplers. Dotted lines represent target minimum values of 30 mmHg. Circles represent individual points, whereas those with a cross show statistical outliers. Asterisks represent a significant difference versus Echelon+ TBGST.