Patent ID: 8382773

Claim:
An apparatus for application of surgical clips to body tissue, the apparatus comprising: a) a handle assembly; b) a shaft assembly extending distally from the handle assembly and defining a longitudinal axis; c) a plurality of surgical clips disposed within the shaft assembly; d) jaws mounted adjacent a distal end portion of the shaft assembly, the jaws including a pair of jaw members movable between a spaced-apart and an approximated position; e) a clip pusher bar configured to individually distally advance a surgical clip to the jaws while the jaw members are in the spaced apart position; f) a drive bar at least partially disposed within the handle assembly and the shaft assembly, the drive bar being longitudinally movable in response to actuation of a trigger of the handle assembly; g) a drive channel positioned adjacent the first and second jaw members to move the jaw members to the approximated position; and h) a lockout system at all times spaced a fixed distance from a distal end of the shaft assembly and configured to selectively engage and extend through a window formed in a distal region of the clip pusher bar to prevent the clip pusher bar from returning to a home position and to prevent the trigger from completing a full stroke when the plurality of clips are substantially exhausted.