JPH0336331Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The invention is suitably used for removing or crushing relatively large lump-like foreign bodies in body cavities, such as stones in the biliary tract. It is related to endoscopes.

[Conventional technology] In order to remove gallstones, etc. with conventional endoscopes, a forceps or the like is guided through a forceps port formed at the tip of the insertion section to remove or crush gallstones, etc. However, due to the limited diameter of the forceps opening, there was a problem in that it was not possible to attach a treatment tool for extracting or crushing a very large object.

Therefore, we removed the large lumps mentioned above.
In order to make crushing possible, the present applicant et al. provided a pair of gripping members facing each other at the distal end of the endoscope, and by opening and closing the gripping members, the removal and crushing of lumps could be carried out. I proposed a configuration that would do this. In this endoscope, in order to open and close the gripping member, an operation wire for opening and closing the gripping member is inserted through the insertion section, and the operation wire is guided from the insertion section to the operation section main body. The grip member is connected to a wire push/pull operation means such as a lever or an operation knob provided on the handle, and the grip member is opened/closed by operating the wire push/pull operation means and pushing or pulling the operation wire. . In order to increase the expansion angle of the gripping member compared to the operating stroke of the operating wire, the pivoting portions of each gripping member are provided on both sides of the insertion portion, which are distant from the center portion. There is.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] The endoscope configured as described above is capable of extracting and crushing extremely large lumps extremely smoothly compared to forceps, etc., which are normally inserted through the insertion section. Although it has the advantage of being able to perform multiple operations, it is not without its operational problems.

That is, the above-mentioned gripping member is wide in order to grip a large lump, and this has the effect that the contact surface of the gripping member against the lump becomes wider, making it easier to crush the lump. When doing so, it becomes impossible to apply a large force to the object, making it impossible to smoothly crush the lump, and the gripping member becomes an obstacle, obstructing the observation field inside the body cavity. limited,
There is a problem in that not only is it difficult to grasp and crush a lump, but there is also a risk that a stone or the like that is large enough to damage the bile duct may be removed by mistake. Furthermore, due to the arrangement layout of various internal objects in the insertion tube, it is usually not possible to arrange the observation window at the center of the insertion tube, and for this reason, it is not possible to observe the inside of the body cavity through the observation window. However, there is also the disadvantage that the operability of each operation of grasping and crushing a lump is not good.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to provide an endoscope in which the gripping member provided at the distal end of the insertion section can be easily operated. There is a particular thing.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a fork-shaped gripping member having a plurality of fingers at the distal end of the insertion section, with the fingers facing each other. By opening and closing each gripping member, a lump can be gripped or crushed, and one of the fingers can be inserted. The feature of this device is that it is arranged at a position that is the center of the observation field through an observation window formed at the tip of the section.

[Function] Since the gripping member is attached to the tip of the insertion section, the overall width of the gripping member can be made large, and the expansion angle can also be made large, so that by opening and closing it, Even large lumps can be gripped and crushed very smoothly.

Moreover, since this gripping member is formed into a fork shape with a plurality of fingers, it comes into contact with a lump in a form close to a point contact, thereby increasing the pressing force against the lump. This allows the crushing to be carried out smoothly. Further, when gripping the object, the gripping force can be increased, so that the object can be gripped in a stable state. Moreover, since either finger on the gripping member is arranged at the center of the observation field in the observation window,
The gripping member can be operated using the finger as a reference, and therefore, the directivity toward the lump can be improved. Furthermore, since it becomes possible to use the space between adjacent finger pieces as an observation field of view, it becomes possible to expand the observation field of the body cavity when the grasping member is closed, and also to The shape of the lump can now be confirmed, and the operability of the gripping member as a whole is significantly improved.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

First, FIG. 4 shows the overall configuration of the endoscope. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body of an operating section equipped with an eyepiece section 1a;
2 indicates the insertion part into the body cavity, and the insertion part 2
The connecting portion side to the operation section main body 1 is a flexible portion 2a, an angled portion 2b is formed on the tip side of the flexible portion 2a, and the tip end portion is a hard portion 2c. Then, the hard part 2 at the tip of the insertion section 2
c, a pair of gripping members 3, 3 are placed in a state facing each other, and can be opened and closed by manual operation using a control lever 1b provided on the main body 1 of the control section.

Next, the distal end portion of the insertion portion 2 is shown in an enlarged manner in FIGS. 1 to 3. The gripping members 3, 3 are respectively pivotally attached to a support shaft 5 at the upper and lower positions shown in FIG. , is configured so that it can be rotated between a closed state shown by a solid line in the figure and an expanded state shown by a dashed-dotted line. The gripping members 3, 3 have gripping parts 3a, 3a for gripping lumps, etc. on the distal side from the attachment part of the support shafts 5, 5, and gripping parts 3a, 3a for gripping lumps, etc. from the attachment parts of the support shafts 5, 5. The lever portions 3b are bent at a predetermined angle with respect to the grip portions 3a, 3a.

Each gripping portion 3a has a notch formed in its central portion from the distal end to the proximal end, thereby allowing two notches to be formed on both sides of each gripping portion 3a, 3a. Finger pieces 6, 6 are formed,
The fingers 6 of each gripping member 3 are opposed to each other, and in the closed state, the joints 6a, 6a of the fingers 6, 6 are brought into contact with each other.

On the other hand, one end of crank plates 7, 7 is pivotally fixed to each lever portion 3b, 3b, and the other end of each of these crank plates 7, 7 is pivotally fixed to a slider 8 by a pivot pin 9. The slider 8 is slidably inserted into a guide tube 4a provided in the axial direction at the center of the tip main body 4, and is connected to the operating lever 1b of the operating section main body 1. The tip of the operating wire 10 is fixedly attached.
The operating wire 10 is loosely wound around a tight coil spring 12 within a sleeve 11 made of a slippery resin material or the like and fixed to the tip main body 4. A sleeve 11 has a close coil spring 12 and an operating wire 10 inside.
The other end is fixed inside the operating section main body 4, so that even if the operating wire is bent, the slider 8 can be moved by pushing or pulling the operating wire. It constitutes a so-called control cable 13 that can be slid. Also,
This control cable 13 is arranged to pass approximately along the central axis of the insertion section 2, and is provided with a slight bending allowance to prevent tension from being generated when the insertion section 2 is bent. It is in a state of being held.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the insertion section 2 is provided with an illumination window 14 and an observation window 15, as well as a water inlet 16, and each of the illumination window 14 and observation window 15 is provided with an optical fiber. A light guide and an image guide consisting of a bundle are connected, the other end of the light guide is connected to a light source device,
Further, the image guide is connected to the eyepiece portion 1a, but since these are well known in endoscopes, the details thereof will be omitted. Since the opening/closing mechanism for the gripping members 3, 3 is provided in the center of the insertion section 2, the observation window 15
Each part is provided at a position away from the central axis of the insertion section 2, and one of the fingers 6, 6 of the gripping members 3, 3 is located on the center line C of the observation field in the observation window 15. It's becoming like that.

This embodiment is constructed as described above, and its operation will be explained next.

To remove gallstones using this endoscope, the insertion section 2 is inserted along the insertion path in the body cavity, and the distal end portion is guided to the position where the gallstones are located. When inserting the insertion portion 2 into the body cavity, the gripping members 3 are kept closed.

When the area where the gallstones are located is reached as described above, the angle portion 2b is bent in an appropriate direction and the gripping members 3, 3 are directed toward this object. At this time, the gripping members 3, 3 are in a closed state, but since there is a space between the fingers 6, 6, the observation field through the observation window 15 is widened, and the insertion operation of the insertion section is And operations such as searching for the location of gallstones can be performed smoothly.

Therefore, the operating lever 1b provided on the operating section main body 1
By operating the operating wire 10 and pushing out the operating wire 10, the slider 8 connected to the operating wire 10 is
is pushed out along the guide cylinder 4a toward the distal end side. As a result, the crank plates 7, 7 pivotally fixed to the slider 8 are pushed out, and the gripping members 3, 3
5, and is expanded as shown by the dashed line in FIG.

In this state, the gripping members 3, 3 are advanced to the position where they grip the lump, and the operating wire 10 is pulled again, thereby slidingly displacing the slider 8 in the opposite direction to that described above. As a result, the gripping members 3, 3 are rotated in the closing direction, and the gripping members 3, 3 are rotated in the closing direction.
The joint portion 6a of each finger piece 6 in 3 is brought into contact with the lump. Here, the joint portion 6a of the finger piece 6 has a relatively narrow area, so that the operating force generated by the pulling operation of the operating wire 10 can be sufficiently applied to the lump. , it becomes possible to exert a large crushing force and gripping force on the lump. Furthermore, since this lump can be gripped by two opposing fingers 6 at positions spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance, the lump can be grasped at four points, two points each facing each other. It is now possible to support it in an extremely stable state, and when it is removed from the body cavity,
There will be no inconvenience such as falling off on the way.

Moreover, among the two finger pieces 6, 6 mentioned above,
Since the position of one finger piece 6 is arranged on the center line C of the observation field in the observation window 15, it is possible to aim at a lump using this finger piece 6 as a reference. Even when the observation window 15 is not located at the center of the insertion section, the directivity for the lump is good.

Furthermore, when removing lumps such as gallstones,
If the removal operation is performed while the bile duct is still large, it may cause damage to the wall of the bile duct, which is dangerous. Here, since the gripping members 3, 3 of the endoscope are inserted, a lump smaller than the size of the gripping members 3, 3 can be removed without causing damage to the bile duct. Therefore, while observing the lump through the eyepiece 1a, the lump is crushed and the size of the lump is determined by the fingers 6 of the gripping claws 3, 3, as shown in FIG. , 6, it becomes possible to extract the lump, and the inconvenience of removing an abnormally large lump as it is is eliminated.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the gripping part of the lump-gripping member was configured to have two fingers, but the number of fingers is not limited to this, and a plurality of fingers may be used. It is possible to provide the following information. When three or more fingers are provided, only the fingers on both sides should be in contact with each other when the gripping member is closed, and the middle fingers should be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance. This is convenient for grasping spherical or nearly spherical lumps.

[Effects of the invention] As detailed above, according to the invention, since the pair of gripping members are formed into a fork shape consisting of a plurality of fingers, it is possible to grip and crush a lump very smoothly. This not only makes it possible to widen the observation field, but also allows one of the fingers to be placed in the center of the observation field, thereby reducing the lumpiness of the gripping member. The directivity for objects is improved, and the overall operability of grasping and crushing lumps is significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view of essential parts of an endoscope showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken from Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a front view of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is an internal view. An external view showing the overall configuration of the mirror, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of the operation. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Operation part main body, 2... Insertion part, 2a... Soft part, 2b... Angled part, 2c... Hard part, 3
...Gripping member, 4...Tip body, 6...Finger piece,
6a...Joint part, 10...Operation wire, 15...
observation window.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A pair of fork-shaped gripping members each having a plurality of fingers are attached to the distal end of the insertion section with the fingers facing each other, and by opening and closing each of the gripping members, a lump can be removed. at the same time that one of the fingers is placed at a position that is the center of the observation field through an observation window formed at the tip of the insertion section. An endoscope characterized by having the following configuration.