Patent ID: 8486091

Claim:
An apparatus for application of surgical clips to body tissue, the apparatus comprising: an elongate endoscopic shaft assembly extending distally from a handle assembly and defining a longitudinal axis, the shaft assembly including: a housing; a jaw mounted adjacent a distal end portion of the housing, the jaw being movable between an open spaced-apart condition and a closed approximated condition; a clip carrier disposed in the shaft assembly and defining a clip channel, a plurality of surgical clips slidably disposed within the clip channel of the clip carrier; a pusher bar reciprocally disposed within the housing of the shaft assembly, the pusher bar being configured to load a distal-most surgical clip, of the plurality of surgical clips, into the jaws during each distal advancement of the pusher bar, the pusher bar including a proximally extending catch; a clip follower slidably disposed within the clip channel of the clip carrier and disposed proximally of the plurality of surgical clips, the clip follower includes a lock-out tab extending from a surface thereof, the lock-out tab defining a window, wherein the window of the lock-out tab receives the catch of the pusher bar following a firing of a final surgical clip thereby preventing movement of the pusher bar in a proximal direction.