Appeal No. 97-2552 Page 8
Application No. 08/541,658
Accordingly, we cannot sustain the examiner's rejection of
appealed claims 3 through 8 under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
New ground of rejection
Under the provisions of 37 CFR § 1.196(b), we enter the
following new ground of rejection.
Claims 3 and 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being
unpatentable over Sinofsky '670 or Sinofsky '677 in view of
Thomas.
Sinofsky '670 discloses photoreactive suturing of biological
materials for joining living tissues and promoting the healing of
small biological structures. Figure 13 shows an apparatus 81 for
remote application of sutures which can be incorporated into a
catheter, endoscope or arthroscope and disposed adjacent to a
remote anastomotic site. The apparatus 81 includes a suture port
means 85 and a laser means 83. The suture port means 85 delivers
a photoreactive suture material to the anastomotic site, the
suture material comprising a structure with at least a portion of
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