Pathologies of the gastro-intestinal (“GI”) system, the biliary tree, the vascular system and other body lumens and hollow organs are commonly treated through endoscopic procedures, many of which require active and/or prophylactic hemostasis to reduce internal bleeding. Tools for deploying hemostatic clips via endoscopes are often used to stop internal bleeding by clamping together the edges of wounds or incisions.
In the simplest form, these clips grasp tissue surrounding a wound, bringing edges of the wound together to allow natural healing processes to close the wound. Specialized endoscopic clipping devices are used to deliver the clips to desired locations within the body and to position and deploy the clips at the desired locations after which the clip delivery device is withdrawn, leaving the clip within the body.
Endoscopic hemostatic clipping devices are generally designed to reach tissues deep within the body (e.g., within the GI tract, the pulmonary system, the vascular system or other lumens and ducts) via a working lumen of an endoscope. Thus, the dimensions of the clipping device are limited by the dimensions of the working channels of endoscopes with which they are to be employed.