Locking mechanism for a surgical fastening apparatus
AssigneeUnited States Surgical Corporation
InventorsThomas M. Tompkins, Dominic F. Presty
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved surgical stapling apparatus containing a locking mechanism to prevent reactuation of the apparatus, the locking mechanism comprising a resilient clip having a hook which is engagable with a locking notch on the cam bar retainer. The resilient clip is initially held in a non-engagable position by means of a movable chock. When the stapler is actuated for the first time, the cam bar retainer pushes the chock into a subsequent position where the chock no longer blocks the resilient clip. The resilient clip then moves to a position where the hook is engagable with the locking notch. Once the cam bar retainer is retracted it can no longer be reactuated.
Claims22
A surgical fastening apparatus including a single use locking mechanism to prevent reactuation of the surgical fastening apparatus, said surgical fastening apparatus comprising:
- (a) a frame;
- (b) a stationary carrier receivable into said frame;
- (c) a pusher assembly slidably mounted within said stationary carrier, said pusher assembly comprising at least one cam bar, a cam bar retainer for mounting the cam bar, said cam bar retainer having a locking notch, a thrust knob attached to the cam bar retainer, and optionally a knife mounted to the cam bar retainer;
- (d) a resilient locking clip fixed to the stationary carrier and having a hook, said locking clip being adapted to be resiliently urged from a first position wherein said hook is non-engagable with said locking notch, to a second position wherein said hook is engagable with said locking notch;
- and,
- (e) a blocking means adapted to be movable from a location wherein said blocking means holds said locking clip in the non-engagable first position, to a location wherein said blocking means does not hold said locking clip in the non-engagable first position.
A loading unit for a surgical fastening apparatus, said loading unit comprising:
- (a) a stationary carrier;
- (b) a pusher assembly slidably mounted within said stationary carrier, said pusher assembly comprising at lest one cam bar, a cam bar retainer for mounting the cam bar, said cam bar retainer having a locking notch, a thrust knob attached to the cam bar retainer, and optionally a knife mounted to the cam bar retainer;
- (c) a resilient locking clip fixed to the stationary carrier and having a hook, said locking clip being adapted to be resiliently urged from a first position wherein said hook is non-engagable with said locking notch, to a second position wherein said hook is engagable with said locking notch;
- and,
- (d) a blocking means adapted to be movable from a location wherein said blocking means holds said locking clip in the non-engagable first position, to a location wherein said blocking means does not hold said locking clip in the non-engageable first position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.