A surgical instrument for implanting one or more rows of staples in living tissue has a pair of juxtaposed beam members with forward portions that jointly define a thin gap in which the tissue may be received and clamped. A latch couples the beam members together at a location behind the tissue gap....http://www.google.se/patents/US5074454?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US5074454 - Surgical stapler
