An analysis system trains a machine learning model to detect stapling events from a video of a surgical procedure. The machine learning model detects times when stapling events occur as well as one or more characteristics of each stapling event such as length of staples, clamping time, or other characteristics. The machine learning model is trained on videos of surgical procedures identifying when stapling events occurred through a learning process. The machine learning model may be applied to an input video to detect a sequence of stapler events. Stapler event sequences may furthermore be analyzed and/or aggregated to generate various analytical data relating to the surgical procedures for applications such as inventor management, performance evaluation, or predicting patient outcomes.