Investigation of Deformities in Staples Used for Gastrectomy -Comparison of Two Different Staplers in Clinical Practice

Background: Few studies have investigated or verified the deformation of staples surgically administered in the human stomach. The shape of the formed staple must represent the characteristics of the stapler used.

Methods: In cases of gastrectomy, the shape of staples administered to resected segments of stomach was observed. Deformation of staples was scored according to the degree of folding of the legs and the degree of leg twisting. Two kinds of staplers, A and B, were used.

Results: 640 staples in group A and 1704 staples in group B were evaluated. In group A, proportions of deformation and twisting were 54.2% and 81.7% respectively. In group B, these were 0.7% and 47.4% respectively. The proportions of deformation and twisting were significantly higher in group A (p<0.01) The proportion of penetration was significant higher in group B.

Conclusions: Degrees of deformation, twisting, and penetration were significantly different between the two groups. These results cannot be said to reflect superiority or inferiority of the staples themselves; they more likely represent a difference between the stapling functions of the two staplers examined. We believe that investigation of staples from excised organ components such as occurred in this study is very important and useful. In addition, these findings must be the basic data of selection and future improvement of staplers.