| abstract |
Surgical clip applying apparatus operable entirely by one hand for advancing clips one at a time into a pair of jaws which close the clip on body tissue. The clips are fed to the jaws in a line. The clips releasably intercouple with one another to form a train which is advanced by a clip pusher acting on the distal-most clip in the train. As the distal-most clip enters the jaws, it is uncoupled from the clip train, and the jaws then close the clip. The pusher is then retracted behind the next clip in the train to ready the apparatus for another cycle of operation. |