Surgical stapler with firing lockout feature coupled to end effector retainer

An apparatus, comprising:

• (a) a body;
• (b) a shaft extending distally from the body;
• (c) an end effector operatively coupled with the shaft, wherein the end effector includes:
• (i) a cartridge jaw,
• (ii) an anvil jaw configured to cooperate with the cartridge jaw to clamp and staple tissue,
• (iii) a knife actuatable within the cartridge jaw and having a cutting edge configured to cut tissue, and
• (iv) a distal retainer configured to couple the cartridge jaw to a portion of the shaft;
• and
• (d) a lockout assembly including a sensor and a lockout, the sensor defining an engagement portion and a manipulator, a portion of the sensor being resiliently biased to bias the manipulator toward a predetermined position, the lockout including one or more arms and a brake disposed on a distal end of the one or more arms, the one or more arms being configured to pivot relative to the distal retainer to move the brake from a locked position in a distal advancement path of the knife to an unlocked position below the knife, the manipulator being in communication with the brake to bias the brake toward the locked position.

An apparatus, comprising:

• (a) a body;
• (b) a shaft extending distally from the body;
• (c) an end effector operatively coupled with the shaft, wherein the end effector includes:
• (i) a cartridge jaw,
• (ii) an anvil jaw configured to cooperate with the cartridge jaw to clamp and staple tissue,
• (iii) a knife actuatable within the cartridge jaw and having a cutting edge configured to cut tissue, and
• (iv) a distal retainer configured to couple the cartridge jaw to a portion of the shaft;
• and
• (d) a lockout assembly including a rod defining a sensor portion and a lockout portion, the sensor portion defining an engagement portion, the lockout portion extending downwardly with respect to the engagement portion, the engagement portion being configured to engage a portion of a staple cartridge disposed in the cartridge jaw to pivot the lockout portion with respect to the distal retainer to pivot the lockout portion from a locked position in a distal translation path of the knife to an unlocked position outside of the distal translation path of the knife.