JP2006087520A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an endoscope system which can omit an illumination optical system such as a light guiding fiber bundle, a light emitting element or the like from an intracavitary insertion section of an endoscope. <P>SOLUTION: An illumination capsule 40 is supported at the distal end of a basket treatment device 30, is transported to the inside of a built-in forceps channel 14 in the intracavitary insertion section 10a of the endoscope 10 and is disposed in the body cavity. The illumination capsule 40 has a structure to contain a battery 41 and a LED 42 to emit light with a driving electric current supplied by the battery 41 in a transparent capsule 43a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an endoscope system for observing the inside of a body cavity.

  An endoscope is used to insert the distal end of the body cavity insertion portion into the body cavity and observe the inside of the body cavity. However, since the body cavity is naturally a dark space, It is necessary to illuminate the test object to such an extent that it can withstand observation by introducing illumination light.

For this reason, in the conventional endoscope, the light guide fiber bundle is passed through the insertion portion in the body cavity, and the illumination light introduced from the illumination device connected to the proximal end of the light guide fiber bundle is emitted from the distal end. The object is irradiated through an illumination window formed at the distal end of the body cavity insertion portion. Alternatively, a light-emitting element for illumination is embedded in the distal end surface of the body cavity insertion portion, and illumination light emitted from the light-emitting element is irradiated onto the test object.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-216085 JP 11-216111 A

  By the way, in addition to the light guide fiber bundle or the cable for supplying the drive current to the light emitting element, various built-in items are incorporated in the insertion portion in the body cavity of the endoscope, and the insertion portion in the body cavity itself is flexibly bent. There is a limit to reducing the outer diameter of the body cavity insertion portion because it is necessary to secure a certain amount of space (a space in which the built-in object can move when the outer cylinder of the body cavity insertion portion bends). . Examples of built-in objects incorporated in the body cavity insertion section include, for example, an image guide fiber bundle (in the case of a fiberscope), an image sensor and a signal cable (in the case of an electronic endoscope), an air / water supply channel, and a bending operation. Pulling wire, forceps channel for passing forceps and the like to the distal end of the body cavity insertion portion, and suctioning. FIG. 5 is a schematic view showing a layout example of the distal end surface of the body cavity insertion portion 100 in such a conventional endoscope (with a light emitting element embedded for illumination). In FIG. 5, 101 and 101 are light emitting elements, 102 is a forceps channel, 103 is an objective optical system, and 104 is a nozzle as an outlet of the air / water supply channel.

  The present invention makes it possible to omit an illumination optical system such as a light guide fiber bundle and a light emitting element from an insertion part in a body cavity of an endoscope, thereby reducing the diameter of the insertion part in the body cavity or a forceps channel. An object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope system capable of relatively increasing the diameter of the endoscope.

  An endoscope system according to the present invention devised to solve the above-mentioned problems is a body cavity composed of a flexible tube having an objective optical system at its distal end and a hollow forceps channel built in from the distal end to the proximal end. An endoscope that includes an inner insertion portion, and that transmits an image formed by the objective optical system to the proximal end side of the body cavity insertion portion; and a transparent capsule having an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the forceps channel It is characterized by comprising an illumination capsule including a light emitting element and a battery for supplying a driving current to the light emitting element.

  According to the endoscope system of the present invention configured as described above, the subject is illuminated when the intracorporeal insertion portion of the endoscope is inserted into the body cavity and the tip thereof is opposed to the subject. Illumination light to be supplied is supplied from an illumination capsule introduced into the body cavity through a forceps channel built in the body cavity insertion portion. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide the illumination optical system in the body cavity insertion portion itself, so that the diameter of the body cavity insertion portion is reduced by the illumination optical system, or the forceps channel is relatively thickened by that amount. be able to.

  As described above, according to the endoscope system of the present invention, it is possible to omit an illumination optical system such as a light guide fiber bundle and a light emitting element from the insertion part of the endoscope into the body cavity, The diameter of the body cavity insertion portion can be reduced. Alternatively, the diameter of the forceps channel can be relatively increased.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Embodiment 1

  FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing each device constituting the endoscope system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the endoscope system according to this embodiment includes an endoscope 10, an image processor 20, a basket treatment tool 30, and a number of illumination capsules 40.

  The endoscope 10 is obtained by removing a light guide optical system (a light guide fiber bundle and a light distribution lens) from a normal electronic endoscope, and is inserted into a body cavity so as to be inserted into a body cavity. An angle knob (not shown) for bending operation of the portion 10a, the distal end portion of the body cavity insertion portion 10a, and an operation portion 10b having various switches 10c, and a flexibility for connecting the operation portion 10b and the image processor 20 A tube 10e and a connector 10d connected to the base end of the flexible tube 10e are provided.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 2, a nozzle 15 of an air / water supply channel for ejecting air and water supplied from a pump (not shown) is attached to the distal end surface of the body cavity insertion portion 10a. A photographing window in which an objective lens (objective optical system) 12 is fitted is provided. An imaging element 13 that captures an image of a subject formed by the objective lens 12 is incorporated in the body cavity insertion portion 10a.

  A cable 18 composed of a large number of signal lines for inputting a signal (synchronization signal, clock signal, etc.) for controlling the image sensor 13 to the image sensor 13 and transmitting an image signal output from the image sensor 13 is: The body is inserted into the body cavity insertion portion 10a, the operation portion 10b, and the universal cable 10e, and is electrically connected to an electrical connector (not shown) including a large number of pins implanted in the base end surface of the connector 10d. Then, it is detachably connected to the image processing processor device 20 through this electrical connector.

  The image processor 20 is a device that controls the image pickup device 13 with a signal transmitted through the cable 18 and performs image processing on the image signal output from the image pickup device 13 to visualize the image signal.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a forceps channel 14 having a distal end opened on the distal end surface thereof and a proximal end opened on a side surface of the operation portion 10c is passed through the body cavity insertion portion 10a. Has been. The protrusion on the side of the operation portion 10c where the proximal end of the forceps channel 14 is open is referred to as a forceps port 10f.

  Various types of forceps are inserted into the forceps channel 14 from the forceps port 10f, and used in a state where the distal end protrudes from the distal end surface of the endoscope body cavity insertion portion 10a. One of the forceps inserted into the forceps channel 14 is a basket treatment tool 30. The basket treatment tool 30 is an improvement of a basket forceps that has been conventionally used for recovering a tissue excised from a body cavity in a treatment using an endoscope. That is, the basket treatment tool 30 operates the handle 30b attached to the proximal end of the pipe 30a inserted into the forceps channel 14 to advance and retract the pulling wire inserted in the pipe 30a. It has a structure which expands / contracts the hook-shaped wire bundle 30c (refer FIG. 4) connected with the front-end | tip of this pulling wire. That is, the basket treatment tool 30 can detachably hold the illumination capsule 40, and is inserted into the forceps channel 14 while holding the illumination capsule 40, whereby the illumination capsule 40 is inserted into the body cavity. 10a is a treatment tool that carries from the proximal end to the distal end. As shown in FIG. 4, when the pulling wire is fed into the pipe 30a, the hook-shaped wire bundle 30c protrudes from the tip of the pipe 30a and expands. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1, when the pulling wire is pulled out from the pipe 30a, the hook-shaped wire 30c is pulled into the pipe 30a while being elastically deformed.

  This basket treatment tool 30 is used to introduce the illumination capsule 40 into the body cavity. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the illumination capsule 40. As shown in FIG. 3, the illumination capsule 40 includes a battery 41 connected in series and an LED (light emitting element) 42 connected to the battery 41 and supplied with a driving current in a liquid-tight manner by a transparent capsule 43. It has the structure. The capsule 43 has a so-called cigar shape whose outer diameter is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the forceps channel 14. The LED 42 irradiates illumination light toward the one end side along the central axis of the capsule 43.

  A number of the illumination capsules 40 are used for a single endoscope observation. When performing endoscopic observation, the operator operates the basket treatment unit 30 outside the endoscope 10 to accommodate one illumination capsule 40 in the saddle-shaped wire bundle 30c. The illumination capsule 40 is held by pulling the pulling wire, and is inserted into the forceps channel 14 from the forceps port 10f of the endoscope 10 and slightly protrudes from the distal end of the body cavity insertion portion 10a as shown in FIG. Then, since the illumination light emitted from the illumination capsule 40 is irradiated in front of the body cavity insertion portion 10a, the object existing in front of the body cavity insertion portion 10a is illuminated. As a result, the object is photographed by the objective lens 12 and the imaging device 13 and visualized by the image processor 20, so that the operator can operate the endoscope 10 while viewing the visualized video.

  Then, when the distal end of the body cavity insertion portion 10a is inserted to a position facing the test portion, the operator performs illumination as shown in FIG. 4 in order to increase the amount of illumination light in order to perform detailed observation. The operation | work which arrange | positions the capsule 40 around a to-be-tested part is performed.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the operator expands the hook-shaped wire bundle 30c by operating the handle 30b of the basket treatment tool 30 and retracting the pulling wire into the pipe 30a. The illumination capsule 40 held in the wire bundle 30c is released. At this time, if the tip of the basket treatment tool 30 is positioned on the body cavity inner wall in advance, the illumination capsule 40 released from the basket treatment tool 30 adheres to the body cavity inner wall. The illumination capsule 40 illuminates the portion to be examined.

  In order to arrange the second and subsequent illumination capsules 40, the operator pulls out the basket treatment tool 30 from the forceps channel 14 and holds the next illumination capsule 40 outside the endoscope 1. The basket treatment tool 30 is inserted into the forceps channel 14 and attached to the inner wall of the body cavity as described above. The operator repeats such an operation until a sufficient number of illumination capsules 40 are arranged on the inner wall of the body cavity.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the illumination light necessary for the examination in the body cavity using the endoscope 1 is supplied from the illumination capsule 40 sent into the body cavity through the forceps channel 14. In addition, it is not necessary to incorporate an illumination optical system in the body cavity insertion portion 10a itself of the endoscope 1. As a result, the body cavity insertion portion 10a of the endoscope 1 can be made thinner by the illumination optical system, or the forceps channel 14 built in the body cavity insertion portion 10a can be configured as an illumination optical system. It becomes possible to make it thicker by that amount.

The system block diagram which shows the structure of the endoscope system which is one Example of this invention. Front view showing the layout of the distal end surface of the body cavity insertion portion The perspective view of the illumination capsule used for embodiment of this invention Illustration of the use state of the endoscope system Front view showing the layout of the distal end surface of the body cavity insertion portion in a conventional endoscope

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Endoscope 12 Objective optical system 13 Image sensor 14 Forceps channel 20 Image processor 30 Basket treatment tool 40 Illumination capsule 41 Battery 42 LED
43 capsules

Claims (2)

An intracorporeal cavity insertion portion comprising a flexible tube having an objective optical system at the distal end and a hollow forceps channel from the distal end to the proximal end; and an image formed by the objective optical system is inserted into the intracavity insertion portion. An endoscope that transmits to the proximal side of the
An endoscope system comprising: an illumination capsule including a light emitting element and a battery for supplying a driving current to the light emitting element in a transparent capsule having an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the forceps channel. . A treatment instrument that can removably hold the illumination capsule and that carries the illumination capsule from the proximal end to the distal end of the insertion portion in the body cavity by being inserted into the forceps channel while holding the illumination capsule. The endoscope system according to claim 1, further comprising: