JP2000070221A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the size of the insertion part in particular of an endoscope provided with an insertion part tubular body composed of a spiral tube and to enhance the flexibility thereof by disposing flexible wire bodies along the spiral tube. SOLUTION: The structure of the insertion part of the endoscope is composed of the spiral tube 30. Namely, the spiral tube 30 is composed of a molding formed by spirally molding a synthetic resin molding having a ribbon shape. Even more, the outside surface of such spiral tube 30 is rigged with electric wires 32. The electric wires 32 constitute the signal line and electric wire lines connected to a CCD camera in the front end and is so composed that the outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube 30 is rigged with the electric wires lined up flatly to one row. The inside of the insertion part is spirally rigged with the electric wires together with the spiral tube 30. The rigging with the electric wires 32 may be executed in the spacing of the spiral tube 30 as well.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope, and more particularly, to an endoscope in which a cord such as an electric wire is routed in an insertion portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An endoscope is used for observing a part of a living body which cannot be observed by direct visual observation. Such an endoscope has an operation unit, and by manually operating an operation knob provided on the operation unit, the curved portion on the distal end side is bent in a desired direction, The observation site is observed through a CCD camera inside the distal end provided on the distal end side of the curved portion.

[0003] The structure of an insertion portion of such an endoscope to be inserted into a living body is as shown in FIGS. 12 and 13. That is, the insertion portion includes a spiral tube 1, and a braided wire 2 for shielding is provided on the spiral tube 1.
And further cover the outside thereof with the cover tube 3.

[0004] In the tube of the insertion portion, a CCD camera cable 4, an air supply tube 5, a water supply tube 6, a forceps tube 7, an optical fiber cable 8, and the like are routed. Further, four wire cables 9 are inserted as shown in FIG. 11A so as to bend the bending portion in a predetermined direction.

[0005] In particular, the camera cable 4 takes out an electric signal from a CCD camera built in the tip portion,
Alternatively, a camera cable for supplying drive power to the CCD camera, as shown in FIG.
For example, a shielded cable having a diameter of 2 mm is used. In such a shielded cable, two coaxial cables 11 having a diameter of about 0.8 mm and six having a diameter of about 0.
35mm shielded wire 12, 3 diameters about 0.3mm
Of insulated wires 13 are arranged.
It is composed of a core.

[0006]

As described above, the insertion portion of the conventional endoscope has the camera cable 4 connected to the CCD camera at the distal end, and the camera cable has a diameter of about 2 mm. It is composed of a shielded cable 4 and has a diameter of about 0.3 m as shown in FIG.
m, three shielded wires 12 having a diameter of about 0.35 mm, and a coaxial cable 1 having a diameter of about 0.8 mm.
1 was arranged in two lines, and was composed of 11 cores in total.
As shown in FIG. 12, an air supply pipe 5, a water supply pipe 6, a forceps pipe 7, a lighting optical fiber cable 8, and the like are routed in the insertion portion having an inner diameter of about 7 mm, as shown in FIG. .

For these reasons, the density of the insertion portion in the tube is extremely high, which causes the following problems. That is, about 8 times the cross-sectional area of the inner diameter of the insertion portion.
% Is occupied by the cable 4 for the CCD camera. The high density in the tube of the insertion portion means that the air supply pipe 5, the water supply pipe 6, the forceps pipe 7, the electric cable 4, the optical fiber cable 8
Cause friction. In addition, a large force is required when bending the bending portion so as to bend the distal end portion in a predetermined direction, which causes a problem that operability is deteriorated.

As described above, a large number of tubes such as an air supply tube 5, a water supply tube 6, and a forceps tube 7 are arranged in addition to the electric system cable 4 in the insertion tube of the endoscope. As a result, the hardness of the insertion portion becomes hard, and the flexibility of the insertion portion is hindered. Also, the fact that many cables enter the tube of the insertion section of the endoscope leads to an increase in the diameter of the entire insertion section of the endoscope, thereby increasing the burden on the patient. For this purpose, it is required to use the insertion section which is as thin as possible.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope which can reduce the thickness of an insertion portion and increase flexibility. Aim.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided an endoscope in which an insertion tube is formed by a spiral tube, wherein a flexible cable is arranged along the spiral tube. It is about mirrors.

[0011] The cord may be arranged on an outer peripheral surface, an inner peripheral surface, or between spiral tubes of the spiral tube. Further, the cord body may be embedded in the spiral tube. Further, the cord may be an electric wire.

Another aspect of the present invention is an endoscope having an image pickup means at a distal end portion and allowing an electric wire connected to the image pickup means to pass through an insertion section, wherein the insertion section tube is formed of a spiral tube. And an endoscope in which the electric wires are spirally arranged along the spiral tube.

[0013] The electric wire may comprise a signal cable for transmitting a signal from the imaging means. Alternatively, the electric wire may be constituted by a power cable for supplying electric power for driving the imaging means.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a CCD
In an electronic endoscope having an image pickup means such as a camera, the present invention relates to an improvement in an arrangement of an electric cable connected to the image pickup means in an insertion tube. That is, the signal line and the power supply line of the electric cable connected to the imaging means are spirally routed in accordance with the spiral tubes constituting the tube of the endoscope insertion section. Here, particularly when an electric wire is wound on the outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube, the ground is strengthened by grounding the shielded wire of the signal wire to the braided wire for shielding over the spiral tube.

According to such an endoscope, an electric cable having a diameter of about 2 mm, which occupies about 8% of the cross-sectional area of the insertion portion in the tube, is eliminated, thereby reducing the density in the endoscope insertion tube. Can be reduced. Therefore, since the friction between the air supply pipe, the water supply pipe, the forceps pipe, and the illumination fiber cable arranged in the insertion pipe can be reduced, the tension of the wire cable when bending the distal end portion is reduced as compared with the conventional case. Becomes possible. FIG. 11 shows a state before the electric cable is removed inside the insertion tube and a state after the electric cable is removed.

By eliminating the electric cable connected to the imaging means from the inside of the tube of the insertion section of the endoscope, the density of the inside of the tube of the insertion section is reduced, and the diameter of the insertion section of the endoscope is reduced. This also makes it possible to reduce the burden on the patient who swallows the endoscope.

Further, by arranging the electric cable between the spiral tube of the endoscope insertion portion and the braided wire for shielding or near the braided wire for shielding, the signal wire is arranged in contact with the ground plate. As a result, the braided wire for the shield of the endoscope insertion section can be used as the ground for the shield wire, which enables a stronger ground than ever before, as well as unnecessary radiation. Noise countermeasures.

[0018]

FIG. 1 shows an entire configuration of an endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention. This endoscope has a distal end having an objective optical system and a CCD camera inside. Part 2
1, a bending portion 22 that can bend so that the distal end portion 21 is directed in a predetermined direction, an insertion portion 23 that is flexible and inserted into a living body, and a bending portion 22 that is directed in a predetermined direction. An operation unit 25 having an operation knob 27;
5 and a universal cord 26 for guiding light, water, air, and power from the power source.

Next, the structure of the insertion section 23 of such an endoscope will be described. The insertion section 23 is formed of a spiral tube 30 as shown in FIG. That is, the spiral tube 30 is constituted by a molded body formed by spirally molding a synthetic resin molded body having a ribbon shape.

Moreover, such a spiral tube 30
An electric wire 32 is routed on the outer surface of the. The electric wire 32 constitutes a signal line and a power supply line connected to the CCD camera in the distal end portion 21, and is arranged in a line on the outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube 30 in a flat line. The spiral tube 30 and the spiral tube 30 are arranged inside the insertion portion 23 in a spiral shape.

As shown in FIG. 3, the wires 32 may be routed in the gap of the spiral tube 30. That is, since the spiral tube 30 is formed by spirally winding a ribbon-shaped plastic molded body, a spiral gap is formed. An electric wire 32 may be routed in the gap as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 5, the end of the electric wire 32 is stripped so that the core wire 33 is exposed. Such a portion of the core wire 33 is connected to a predetermined portion, whereby it becomes possible to take out a signal from the CCD camera at the distal end portion 21 or supply power to the CCD camera.

The configuration shown in FIG.
In this embodiment, the electric wire 32 is routed on the inner peripheral surface of the cable. The configuration shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is such that an electric wire 3 is provided inside a synthetic resin ribbon constituting the spiral tube 30.
2 is buried and molded.

After the electric wires 32 are spirally routed along the spiral tube 30 as described above, a braided shielding wire 38 is attached to the outside thereof as shown in FIG. The braided shield wire 38 is formed by knitting a bare conductive wire into a tubular shape, and such a braided wire 38 is covered on the outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube 30. A cover tube 41 is attached to the outside as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 10, an air supply pipe 4 is provided in the insertion section 23 comprising the spiral tube 30.
2, water supply pipe 43, forceps pipe 44, optical fiber cable 4
5 and the wire cable 46 (see FIG. 11B) are respectively arranged.

As described above, in the present embodiment, CC
Figure 1 as signal line or power line of D camera
3, instead of using a shielded cable having a diameter of about 2 mm, instead of using a shielded cable, the electric wires 32 are routed separately along the spiral tube 30.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the electric wire 32 constituting the power cable is wound around the outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube 30. For example, two coaxial cables with a diameter of about 0.8 mm, six shielded wires with a diameter of about 0.35 mm,
Two insulated wires each having a diameter of about 0.3 mm are arranged as shown in FIG. 2 and wound neatly on the outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube 30 inside the endoscope insertion portion 23 in accordance with the spiral shape. Fix by etc. Three insulated wires,
When six shielded wires and two coaxial cables are arranged in one line on a plane, the width is about 5 mm.

In addition, as shown in FIG.
The electric wire 32 is disposed in the spiral gap of the spiral tube 30 constituting the tube of the endoscope insertion section 23.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG.
0 and fixed on the inner peripheral surface by a method such as bonding. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, it is embedded and molded in the spiral tube 30 in advance. Here, each of the insulated wires, shielded wires, and coaxial cables constituting the electric wire 32 has an insulating coating, and is insulated from each other.

As shown in FIG. 9, the spiral tube 30 in which the electric wires 32 constituting the signal line and the power supply line of the CCD camera are wound together is combined with a braided wire 38 for shielding as shown in FIG.
The braided wire for shielding 38 is arranged on the outer peripheral surface of the wire.

At this time, the shield wire of the electric wire 32 and the shield of the coaxial cable are securely grounded to the braided wire 38 for shielding, and thereby are used as a strong ground. In addition, the surroundings of the shield wire in the electric wire 32 are also covered by the ground of the braided wire for shield 38, so that measures against unnecessary radiation are surely taken.

Both ends of the electric wire 32 spirally wound together with the spiral tube 30 have the same shape as that of the shielded braided wire 38 which is pulled out with the tip end being separated, as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the spiral tube 30 is drawn out at both ends. Therefore, the core wire 33 may be taken out by removing the insulating coating of this portion and connected to a predetermined portion.

According to such a structure, an insertion tube having the same function without passing through the electric cable for the CCD camera which has conventionally passed through the insertion portion 23 of the endoscope can be realized. Generally, the above-mentioned electric cable is inserted into the insertion portion 23.
Occupying about 8% of the area of the inner diameter of the endoscope insertion tube, the density inside the endoscope insertion tube can be reduced by eliminating such an electric cable. As a result, the friction between the air supply pipe 42, the water supply pipe 43, the forceps pipe 44, and the illumination optical fiber cable 45 shown in FIG. 10 in the insertion portion can be reduced, so that the distal end portion 21 is directed in a predetermined direction. The tension of the wire cable 46 when bending the bending portion 22 can be reduced as compared with the related art. FIG. 11 shows a comparison between the inside state of the tube of the insertion portion before removing the electric cable 4 for the CCD camera and the cross-sectional shape of the insertion tube after removing the electric cable 4.

By eliminating the CCD camera electrical cable 4 from the inside of the insertion tube 23, the density inside the insertion tube can be reduced, and the diameter of the endoscope insertion tube 23 can be made smaller than before. Thus, the burden on the patient who swallows the endoscope can be reduced.

The spiral tube 3 of the endoscope insertion section 23
Since the electric wire 32 is arranged between the wire 0 and the shielded braided wire 38 or in the vicinity of the shielded braided wire 38, the signal wire is arranged in contact with the ground plate, and the shield wire is used as a ground for the shield wire. Since the braided wire 38 can be used, a stronger ground than before can be taken, which is advantageous for measures against noise such as unnecessary radiation.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to one embodiment shown in the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the technical scope of the present invention. For example, the above embodiment relates to a medical endoscope, but the present invention is also applicable to an industrial endoscope.

[0036]

As described above, the present invention relates to an endoscope in which the insertion tube is formed by a spiral tube.
A flexible cord is arranged along the spiral tube.

Accordingly, it is not necessary to insert the cord in the spiral tube, thereby making it possible to reduce the density inside the spiral tube and to make the insertion portion more flexible and thinner than before. It becomes possible.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an endoscope having an image pickup means at a distal end thereof and an electric wire connected to the image pickup means being inserted through the insertion section, wherein the insertion section tube is constituted by a spiral tube. In addition, an electric wire is spirally arranged along the spiral tube.

Therefore, according to such an endoscope, it is possible to eliminate a dedicated electric cable connected to the imaging means, and to omit the space occupied by the electric cable inside the insertion section. It becomes possible. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the density in the tube of the insertion portion and to reduce the thickness thereof.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an entire configuration of an endoscope.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a spiral tube.

FIG. 3 is a front view of another spiral tube.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing drawing of an electric wire from a spiral tube.

FIG. 5 is a front view showing the drawing of an electric wire of another spiral tube.

FIG. 6 is a front view of yet another spiral tube.

FIG. 7 is a front view of still another spiral tube.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view in which a part of an insertion tube formed of a spiral tube is broken.

FIG. 10 is a partially broken perspective view showing the internal structure of the spiral tube.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing a cross-sectional structure of a spiral tube.

FIG. 12 is a partially broken perspective view showing the internal structure of a conventional spiral tube.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of an electric cable used in a conventional endoscope.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ‥‥ spiral tube, 2 ‥‥ braided wire for shield,
3 ‥‥ cover tube, 4 ‥‥ camera cable, 5 ‥
{Air supply pipe, 6} Water supply pipe, 7} Forceps pipe, 8} Optical fiber cable, 9} Wire cable, 11} Coaxial cable, 12} Shielded wire, 13} Insulated wire, 21}
{Tip, 22} Curved, 23} Insert, 25
Operation part, 26 ‥‥ universal cord, 27 ‥‥ operation knob, 30 ‥‥ spiral tube, 32 ‥‥ electric wire, 33
{Core wire, 38} braided wire for shielding, 41} cover tube, 42} air supply pipe, 43} water supply pipe, 44}
Forceps tube, 45 ‥‥ fiber optic cable, 46 ‥‥ wire cable

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Seiro Gomi 6-35, Kita-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo Sony Corporation F-term (reference) 2H040 DA03 DA15 DA18 GA02 4C061 AA00 BB00 CC06 DD03 FF07 FF45 JJ06 LL02 UU03 5C022 AA09 AB15 AC42 AC54 AC75

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. An endoscope in which an insertion portion tube is constituted by a spiral tube, wherein a flexible cable is arranged along the spiral tube. 2. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the cord is disposed on an outer peripheral surface of the spiral tube. 3. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the cord is disposed on an inner peripheral surface of the spiral tube. 4. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said cords are arranged between said spiral tubes. 5. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the cord is buried in the spiral tube. 6. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the cable body is an electric wire. 7. An endoscope having an image pickup means at a distal end thereof and allowing an electric wire connected to the image pickup means to pass through an insertion section, wherein the insertion section tube is formed of a spiral tube. An endoscope wherein the electric wires are spirally arranged along the spiral tube. 8. The endoscope according to claim 7, wherein said electric wire is constituted by a signal cable for transmitting a signal from said imaging means. 9. The endoscope according to claim 7, wherein said electric wire comprises a power cable for supplying electric power for driving said imaging means.