Patent ID: 8734470

Claim:
Surgical apparatus, comprising: an instrument, which has a shaft part and a jaw part with a jaw opening, which jaw part is arranged at a distal end of the shaft part; a thread carrier, which is a tube with an inner thread channel extending therethrough and opening at a distal end of the thread carrier; the thread carrier is guided by the shaft part and can be displaced from a retracted position, in which it exposes the jaw opening, into an advanced position, in which it crosses the jaw opening and, with the distal end, protrudes through a passage opening of the jaw part situated distally from the jaw opening; a thread, which, by means of the thread carrier, can be guided through human or animal tissue, into which a suture should be attached, or guided around human or animal tissue, around which a ligature should be applied; and wherein the thread extending through the inner thread channel has, on its end side, a bulge formed in the thread, which bulge is situated in front of the distal end of the thread carrier and has an external diameter which is greater than an internal diameter of the inner thread channel and greater than an internal diameter of a distal region of the passage opening, so that the bulge cannot be pulled into the thread channel and is carried along by the thread carrier when said thread carrier is displaced into its advanced position from its retracted position, wherein the bulge is pushed through the passage opening of the jaw part under at least partial elastic deformation of the bulge and the bulge is held distal to the passage opening and against being retracted through the passage opening during a subsequent retraction of the thread carrier.