Patent ID: 7207472

Claim:
A surgical instrument adapted for applying a plurality of surgical fasteners to body tissue, the surgical instrument comprising: a cartridge module including a cartridge housing containing a plurality of surgical fasteners and a knife, the cartridge module includes a driver disposed to push surgical fasteners out of the cartridge housing; a firing mechanism associated with the cartridge housing for ejecting the surgical fasteners and the knife from the cartridge housing; and the knife includes a detent disposed to contact a mating detent of the cartridge module during longitudinal travel of the knife thereby preventing undesired forward and rearward motion of the knife; the driver includes a detent disposed to contact at least one mating detent formed on the cartridge module for preventing undesired movement of the driver; and wherein the cartridge housing includes a cartridge slot through which the detent of the knife extends, the cartridge slot includes first and second flexible fingers molded into the side of the cartridge housing.