Importance

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Abstract

There is disclosed a surgical stapler. An anvil is mounted on a distal end portion of an elongated body of the stapler. A guide member supports a number of staples disposed in contiguous relation to one another. The staples are urged toward the anvil by an urging mechanism. A ram is mounted on the body for movement along the longitudinal axis of the body. A lever is pivotally mounted on the body, and the pivotal movement of the lever is converted into a rectilinear movement of the ram by a motion converting mechanism. The ram, when advanced, cooperates with the anvil to deform the staple disposed in a path of movement of the ram. In order to achieve a lightweight and small-size construction of the stapler, the lever is pivotally connected at its proximal end to the proximal end portion of the body so that the lever is pivotally movable toward and away from the body, and a distal end portion of the lever serves as a manipulating portion. A mid portion of the lever spaced apart from the manipulating portion acts on the motion converting mechanism. Also, in order to achieve the above purpose, a guide passage for guiding an urging member of the urging mechanism has a curved portion, and the urging member has a flexible portion which can be guided by the curved portion.

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First Claim