DE102022003816A1 - Automatic cleaning system for the front lens of an endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an automatic rinsing system for an endoscope camera (14) in order to remove contamination and moisture build-up on the optics (17) while taking into account the lowest possible energy expenditure, the lowest possible consumption of rinsing liquid (10) and a maximum cleaning effect.

Description

The invention relates to a device for use in rigid and flexible video endoscopes for automatically rinsing the front lens (17) of the camera system in the head (14) of a video endoscope.
The front lens of a video endoscope becomes dirty or covered with a film of moisture during use.
Therefore, it is necessary to clean the front lens at regular intervals.
This is generally done with a water jet (16) that exits from a suitably arranged and shaped nozzle (15) near the front lens (17).

This water jet can, for example, be triggered manually with a connected water-filled syringe.
Manually triggering the water jet can hinder the endoscope user. However, there are also applications that make manual triggering of the water jet impossible because the user is not near the irrigation system.

This device solves these problems by automatically triggering a water jet, making manual activation unnecessary.

In order to enable the most effective and economical rinsing of the front lens (17), the automatic rinsing function should allow an adjustable duration (19) of the water jet as well as an adjustable time interval (21) between the rinsing processes.

Furthermore, this automatic function should consume as little energy as possible in order to enable the so-called wireless endoscopes - self-sufficient endoscopes with their own power supply and without any wired connection to peripheral devices - to have as long an operating time as possible with the available battery capacities.

• - ein möglichst hoher hydrostatischer Druck der Spülflüssigkeit (10); im allgemeinen Wasser, muss zur Verfügung stehen.
• - Der Spülstoss muss eine einstellbare Dauer haben. Je höher der hydrostatische Druck der Spülflüssigkeit, desto kürzer kann dieser Spülstoss sein und desto länger reicht die Spülflüssigkeit im Vorratsbehälter.
• - Eine einstellbare zeitliche Dauer, das heißt ein Spülintervall von einem Spülstoss zum nächsten, muss eingestellt werden können. Die Länge des Spülintervalls richtet sich nach der Art der auszuführenden endoskopischen Untersuchung.
• - Einen hohen Druck der Spülflüssigkeit während der Spülung mit gleichzeitig minimaler Belastung der vorgegebenen Akkukapazität - das heißt, ein Spülstoss muss so wenig Energie verbrauchen wie möglich.

In detail, this means the following requirements for this invention:

• - the highest possible hydrostatic pressure of the rinsing liquid (10), generally water, must be available.
• - The flushing pulse must have an adjustable duration. The higher the hydrostatic pressure of the flushing liquid, the shorter the flushing pulse can be and the longer the flushing liquid lasts in the reservoir.
• - It must be possible to set an adjustable time period, i.e. a flushing interval from one flush to the next. The length of the flushing interval depends on the type of endoscopic examination to be carried out.
• - A high pressure of the rinsing liquid during rinsing with a simultaneous minimal load on the specified battery capacity - this means that a flush must use as little energy as possible.

The problem is to provide high pressure with minimal battery consumption in wireless endoscopes.

• Alle Energie, die für einen hohen Spüldruck notwendig ist, wird vor dem Einsatz des Endoskops manuell in das Spülsystem übertragen - diese Energie braucht dann nicht mehr von der Akku-Kapazität bereitgestellt zu werden.

A water pump for flushing needs a certain amount of time to provide flushing pressure and this requires a lot of electrical energy.
A water pump cannot achieve a short flushing pulse - in the tenths of a second range. A water pump cannot achieve a sufficiently high pressure of the flushing liquid and it requires a lot of energy and uses more flushing liquid than is necessary.
In this invention, the pressure flushing pulse duration problem is solved in a different way:

• All energy required for high rinsing pressure is manually transferred to the rinsing system before the endoscope is used - this energy then no longer needs to be provided by the battery capacity.

This invention solves the problem by inserting a compression spring (4) into a liquid container - preferably a commercially available syringe (1) - between the piston (9) and the proximal end of the syringe.
This compression spring (4) pushes the piston (9) distally - the outlet end of the syringe - through its spring force.
Rinsing fluid (10) is drawn into the syringe barrel (1) until the compression spring (4) is maximally compressed. The syringe piston is locked or locked (8, 5) via a locking function between the proximal end of the syringe and the piston rod (2) of the syringe.
As a result, the compression spring cannot push the piston distally and the irrigation fluid (10) remains in the piston.

A flushing tube (12) from the distal end of the syringe (11) is connected to the syringe - for example via a Luer-Lock connection - and subsequently connected to a solenoid valve (13), which may be located elsewhere on the endoscope.

This solenoid valve (13) is closed in the resting state - no rinsing fluid can be passed through the valve (13).
The locking mechanism (8, 5) between the piston rod (2) and the proximal end of the syringe can now be released by means of a corresponding mechanical device (6, 7) - preferably a locking pin (8) is pulled out of the locking groove (5) in the piston rod (2) against a spring pressure (7). The compression spring (4) is thereby released and exerts pressure on the rinsing liquid. The rinsing liquid (10) under spring pressure is now held back in the syringe by the solenoid valve (13).

A control electronics (20) now controls the opening and closing of the solenoid valve (13).
The duration of the flushing pulse and the time interval can be entered into this control electronics, for example by means of potentiometers (19, 20) which can be set by the user or by means of a fixed internal setting, for example by means of corresponding resistors in the control electronics or by means of an electronic device which makes a potentiometer superfluous.
The control electronics (20) also contain a power storage device - preferably a rechargeable lithium battery, which supplies the necessary energy to enable autonomous and completely wireless operation of the endoscope.

• - es arbeitet mit extrem niedriger Leistungsaufnahme und
• - es ermöglicht sehr kurze Öffnungszeiten im hundertstel-Sekundenbereich und damit sehr kürze Spülstösse, wie sie zu einer effektiven und ökonomischen Reinigung der Frontlinse des Videoendoskops benötigt werden.

The solenoid valve has 2 advantages:

• - it operates with extremely low power consumption and
• - it enables very short opening times in the hundredths of a second range and thus very short rinsing pulses, as required for effective and economical cleaning of the front lens of the video endoscope.

For example, a flushing pulse duration of 0.18 seconds and an interval duration of 2.3 minutes or more could be realized.
This precise control of a flushing pulse cannot be achieved by a human user with manual activation. The most optimal configuration of these two parameters can therefore be set for the current application.

An example of a video endoscope application is a special type of endoscope that can depict the anatomical function of the larynx area in horses - especially the soft palate.
In this procedure, an appropriately shaped endoscope is inserted into one of the horse's nostrils and pushed into the laryngeal area until a good, full-screen image of the soft palate is achieved.
It is now possible to check whether the horse's soft palate is correctly anatomically formed by generating a video image via the endoscope camera, which can be projected elsewhere - as a single image or as a running film in real time.

For further diagnosis, the horse is put under stress - that is, it runs at a gallop. Anatomical abnormalities or malfunctions of the soft palate under stress now become visible.

Under this load, the front lens (17) of the camera fogs up very quickly and must be rinsed at intervals to remove the coating from the lens, otherwise the image would be blurred and diffuse.

It is obvious that the jockey cannot perform this flushing manually with the necessary precision.
It is impossible to perform manual flushing on trotters - in this case the jockey sits in a sulky behind the horse.
Likewise, manual flushing is not possible if the horse runs without a jockey.

This special application of so-called overground endoscopy is a rather rare diagnostic application - in contrast to the common bronchoscopy or gastroscopy.
There are therefore only a few manufacturers of overground endoscopes and rinsing of the front lens is usually not done and if it is done, it is done manually.

An automatic rinsing system as described in this invention is not known.

Claims (10)

Device for automatically cleaning the front lens of an endoscope optic (17) in a distal endoscope head (14) with a rinsing liquid (10) which is located in a storage container (1) and is pressurized by spring pressure (4) by inserting a compression spring (4) between the proximal end of the storage container (1) and the piston (9) of the storage container, which exerts pressure on the rinsing liquid (10) via the piston. The distal outlet opening (11) of the storage container can be reversibly locked - preferably by a solenoid valve - and can thus be opened or closed at will via a control line (18) of the control unit in order to control the flow of the rinsing liquid via the rinsing hose (12). The rinsing liquid outlet (16) takes place via a correspondingly shaped nozzle (15) in the head of the endoscope (14). Device according to Claim 1 , in which the rinsing container (1) preferably consists of a commercially available syringe. Device according to Claim 1 or 2 , in which a compression spring (4) is introduced into the storage container (1) in the syringe between the syringe plunger (9) and the proximal syringe end (1), which presses the plunger in the distal direction. Device according to one of the Claims 1 until 3 , in which the syringe piston rod (2) can be locked by a locking mechanism (5, 7, 8) and thereby the syringe piston remains in this position until it is pulled out of the locking groove (5) of the piston rod (2) by the locking mechanism via the release button (6) against spring pressure (7) and thus releases the piston, which exerts pressure on the rinsing liquid (10) via the compression spring (4). Device according to Claim 1 and 4 , in which the rinsing liquid (10) under pressure due to the unlocking of the piston is supplied by an electrically operated solenoid valve (13) which locks the distal outlet opening (11) of the syringe and thus prevents the rinsing liquid from escaping. Device according to Claim 1 and 5 in which an electronically programmable control unit (20) controls the solenoid valve (13) in corresponding time cycles (19) and pulse widths (21). Device according to Claim 1 and 6 , in which, in addition to the programmable electronic control, a manual flush can also be triggered at any time using a button (22). The device therefore also functions with manual triggering, in parallel with the electronically time-controlled triggering. Device according to Claim 1 and 7 , in which a manual flush can be triggered by a wireless remote control system at a spatial distance from the device, in that a receiver in the control unit (20) receives the transmission signals from the remote transmitter and thus triggers the flushing function. Device according to Claim 1 , 7 and 8th which operates in an autonomous wireless environment with its own power supply - preferably a power storage device in the control unit (20) - independent of external energy supply. Device according to Claim 1 , 2 and 3 in which the compression spring (23) exerts pressure via a corresponding shape (25) from outside the syringe body onto the syringe piston via a correspondingly shaped syringe rod (24) with a counter bearing surface (24) for the compression spring, in that the syringe rod (24) is connected to the piston of the syringe.