Self contained gas powered surgical apparatus

Claim 1

A surgical apparatus for driving surgical fasteners comprising: a) a frame portion defining an elongated barrel section and a stationary hand grip section which depends angularly from said barrel section; b) an elongated body portion extending distally from said barrel section of said frame portion; c) a fastener applying assembly associated with a distal end portion of said body portion, said fastener applying assembly including: i) a cartridge assembly having a tissue engaging surface thereon and having a plurality of surgical fasteners contained therein; and ii) an anvil member mounted adjacent said cartridge assembly and having a fastener forming surface thereon, said anvil member and said cartridge assembly being relatively movable between an open position wherein said fastener forming surface is spaced from said tissue engaging surface and a closed position wherein said fastener forming surface is in close cooperative alignment with said tissue engaging surface; d) an approximation assembly operatively associated with said fastener applying assembly and actuable from said frame portion for effecting the relative movement of said anvil member and said cartridge assembly between said open and closed positions; e) a fastener ejection assembly movable through said cartridge assembly from a distal end portion thereof toward a proximal end portion thereof and actuable from said frame portion for sequentially ejecting said plurality of surgical fasteners from said cartridge assembly; f) a pneumatic actuation system operatively associated with said fastener ejection assembly and including a canister of compressed gas disposed within said stationary hand grip section of said frame portion, a valve member communicating with said canister of compressed gas, and a compression chamber defined within said barrel section of said frame portion for housing a piston which is movable through said compression chamber in response to a release of compressed gas from said canister to drive said fastener ejection assembly, wherein said canister has a fixed longitudinal orientation with respect to said frame portion and said valve member is configured to move relative to said canister of compressed gas for releasing compressed gas therefrom; g) an actuation trigger operatively associated with said stationary hand grip section of said frame portion for moving said valve member toward said canister of compressed gas; and h) a spring biased blocking member operatively associated with said frame portion for selectively inhibiting movement of said actuation trigger while maintaining said actuation trigger in a position wherein access thereto is precluded.