of the rest of the anvil member 10 the anvil head 10 c has an anvil face 10 d on which a plurality of staple forming grooves 19 may preferably be arranged in two offset substantially straight lines in addition a substantially straight guiding slit 21 may preferably extend substantially along the center of the anvil face 10 d substantially parallel to the lines of staple forming grooves 19 while the stabilizing groove 304 is preferably formed along a distal side of the anvil face 10 d for receiving the stabilizer tongue 308 the stabilizing groove 304 may preferably have a shape and size substantially corresponding to the stabilizing tongue 308 so that the stabilizing tongue 308 is snugly received within the stabilizing groove 304 when the anvil member 10 and the stapler member 17 are in the stapling position as shown in fig2 a the stapler head 17 c is formed on a second end 17 e of the stapler member 17 opposite to the first end 17 a thereof and preferably has a cross section corresponding at least in the area adjacent to a stapler face 17 d to the size and shape of the anvil head 10 c a plurality of staple slits 34 are arranged on the stapler face 17 d in positions corresponding to the position of the staple forming grooves 19 on the anvil head 10 c so that when the stapler face 17 d and anvil face 10 d are positioned adjacent to each other each.