JP2000229059A - Flexible portion structure of endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a flexible portion structure of an endoscope for absorbing a twist of an LG soft part by constituting a part covered with a bending preventive cover member out of a protecting tube among the whole LG flexible portion. SOLUTION: In an endoscope, an inside LG flexible portion 16 of a cover member 40 is formed of a protecting tube 44. The protecting tube 44 can smoothly absorb a twist caused on the operation part 12 side since the protecting tube has flexibility. The protecting tube 44 can prevent the occurrence of reaction when absorbing a twist since the protecting tube has a characteristic of holding a twisted shape. The protecting tube 44 also has a characteristic of being large in a radius of curvature, but can maintain flexibility of a conventional device since the protecting tube is formed inside the cover member 40 for preventing bending of the LG flexible portion 16.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flexible structure of an endoscope, and more particularly, to a flexible structure of an endoscope in which a light guide and an air / water pipe are inserted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Endoscopes used for medical purposes are mainly
Tip hard part, curved part, insertion part side flexible part, hand operation part, L
It is configured by a G (light guide) flexible portion and a connector, and is configured such that the distal end hard portion bends up, down, left and right by operating the bending portion with the hand operation portion. The hand operation unit is connected to a connector via an LG flexible unit, and the connector is connected to the light source device. Thereby, the irradiation light from the light source device is transmitted to the distal end hard portion via the light guide provided in the soft portion or the like.

When inserting such an endoscope into a patient's body cavity, an operator operates a hand operation unit to bend the angle, and twists the wrist holding the hand operation unit to form an insertion unit. The insertion part is inserted while rotating. At this time, since the end of the LG flexible portion is connected to the light source device, the LG flexible portion is twisted by rotating the hand operation portion. The LG flexible portion is formed by coating a flexible tube of a screw type with urethane or the like,
Although it has flexibility (property), it has almost no twistability (twisting property). Therefore, when the hand operation part is rotated, a reaction force is immediately generated due to the twisting of the LG flexible part, which places a great burden on the operator.

Therefore, in a conventional endoscope, a rotation mechanism is provided on the connector side of the LG flexible portion, and the torsion of the LG flexible portion is absorbed by the rotation mechanism.

[0005]

However, since the twist generated on the side of the operation section is not completely transmitted to the connector side, in the conventional endoscope, the twist increases as the operation section is closer to the operation side. Was burdened. Such a problem can be solved by providing a rotation mechanism on the hand side of the LG flexible portion. However, in this case, the provision of the rotation mechanism increases the size of the hand operation unit or increases the weight of the hand operation unit, and on the contrary, the operability deteriorates.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a flexible portion structure of an endoscope that can absorb a twist generated in an LG flexible portion.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a tubular flexible section structure for connecting an endoscope hand-held operating section and an endoscope connector.
The connection part on the hand operation unit side and a part in the vicinity of the connection part are formed of a threadable tube. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the connecting portion on the hand operation portion side and the vicinity thereof among the flexible portions are formed of a tube having a twistable property, so that the torsion generated on the hand operation portion side of the soft portion. To
It can be absorbed smoothly by the tube.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the torsionable tube is formed of a protect tube, so that the tube can smoothly absorb the torsion of the flexible portion by being twisted, and its twisted shape. Is held. Therefore, no reaction force is generated due to the twisting of the tube. According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the protection tube having the characteristic of having a large radius of curvature is provided inside the bending prevention cover which does not affect the bending, the same flexibility as the conventional device can be maintained. Can be.

[0009]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an endoscope according to the present invention; FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an electronic endoscope 10 to which a flexible portion structure of an endoscope according to the present invention is applied.

The electronic endoscope 10 shown in FIG. 1 mainly includes a hand operation section 12, an insertion section 14, an LG flexible section (corresponding to a flexible section) 16, and an LG connector (corresponding to a connector) 18. The insertion portion 14 is a portion to be inserted into a body cavity of a patient, and includes an insertion portion-side soft portion 20, a bending portion 22, and a hard distal end portion 24. One end of the insertion-section-side flexible section 20 is connected to the hand operation section 12, and the other end is connected to the bending section 22. The bending portion 22 is remotely bent by rotating a pair of knobs 26 provided on the hand operation portion 12. As a result, the distal end hard portion 24 can be directed in a predetermined direction.

An objective lens, an irradiation hole, an air supply / water supply hole, and a forceps channel (not shown) are formed on an end surface of the distal end hard portion 24, and a solid-state image pickup device (CCD) is provided inside the objective lens. I have. Further, a suction button 30 and an air / water supply button 32 are juxtaposed on the hand operation unit 12. When the suction button 30 is pressed, a liquid (a liquid such as a cleaning liquid, a chemical liquid, or blood) is suctioned from the forceps channel, and when the air / water supply button 32 is pressed, compressed air or cleaning liquid is supplied from the air / water supply hole. Supplied. Further, a shutter button 28 is provided on the hand operation unit 12, and an observation image is taken by pressing the shutter button 28. Reference numeral 34 denotes a forceps hole that communicates with a forceps channel of the distal end hard portion 24, through which a treatment tool such as forceps is inserted as needed.

The LG (light guide) flexible portion 16 contains a light guide, a signal cable, an air / water supply tube, a suction tube, and the like. The light guide is a light guide rod 19 of an LG (light guide) connector 18. Is connected to a contact on the light source device side built in the processor 50 shown in FIG. Thereby, the irradiation light from the light source device is transmitted through the light guide, and is irradiated on the subject from the irradiation light of the hard distal end portion 24.

The signal cable is an LG connector 1
8. Connected to the electrical connector 38 via the flexible tube 36,
The electrical connector 38 is connected to the processor 50.
As a result, an electric signal indicating the observation image from the CCD is output to the processor 50. The electric signal is processed by the processor 50 to generate a video signal, and the video signal is output to the monitor TV 54 via the connection cable 52. Thereby, the monitor TV5
4 shows the observation image. In addition, the code | symbol 56 of FIG.
It is a waterproof cap, and is attached to the electric connector 38 so that the washing liquid is not applied at the time of washing.

FIG. 2 is a half sectional view of a main part of the present invention. As shown in the figure, a cover member 40 (corresponding to a cover for preventing bending) is provided on the LG flexible portion 16 on the hand operation portion 12 side.
Is externally fitted. The cover member 40 is made of a rubber material having appropriate mechanical strength, and prevents the LG flexible portion 16 from being bent.

The LG flexible part 16 is provided with a protect tube 44 on the side of the hand operating part 12 and an LG connector 18.
The connection portion is arranged inside the cover member 40 by connecting the flexible tube 42 on the side. That is, the protection tube 44 is
0, and the base end thereof is connected to the connection pipe 58. The connection pipe 58 is connected to the hand operation unit 12 via the O-ring 60.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the protect tube shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the protection tube 44 is formed such that the spiral members overlap at the ends. That is, the protection tube 44 is configured by engaging an engagement protrusion 44A formed at one end and projecting to the outer periphery with a projection 44B formed at the other end. In the protection tube 44 configured as described above, the engaging projection 44A is formed in the gap 4 having the spiral interval t.
Since the 4C can move freely, it has flexibility and twistability. Therefore, when the LG flexible portion 16 is twisted, the torsion of the LG flexible portion 16 is absorbed by twisting the torsion protection tube 44. Also, the protection tube 44 is in a twisted state,
Since it also has a characteristic of maintaining its shape in a bent state, when the torsion of the LG flexible portion 16 is absorbed, it is held in that shape. Therefore, no reaction force is generated by absorbing the torsion of the LG flexible portion 16.

On the other hand, the flexible tube 42 shown in FIG.
The same endoscope as a conventional endoscope is used, and is formed by coating a flexible tube 46 of a screw tube type with urethane 48 or the like. The flexible tube 42 has characteristics of a small radius of curvature and excellent flexibility. Therefore, the LG flexible portion 16 can smoothly follow the movement of the hand operation portion 12 due to the bending of the flexible tube 42.

The flexible tube 42 and the protect tube 44 are connected by laser welding or brazing via a ring. In this case, although the joint loses flexibility, the operability of the endoscope does not deteriorate because the joint is inside the cover member 40 that prevents bending. Next, the operation of the electronic endoscope 10 configured as described above will be described.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a method of using the electronic endoscope 10 as a large intestine endoscope. As shown in the figure, the operator grasps the hand operation unit 12, inserts the insertion unit 14 into the body cavity of the patient, and guides the hard distal end portion 24 to the lesion while observing the image displayed on the monitor. . At this time, since the inside of the patient's body cavity is complicated, the operator operates the hand operation unit 12 to bend the bending unit 22 or changes the posture of the hand operation unit 12,
The fine adjustment of the position of the distal end hard portion 24 is performed.

When the posture of the hand operation unit 12 is changed, the LG flexible unit 16 having one end connected to the hand operation unit 12 is twisted or bent because the other end is connected to the processor 50. As described above, the LG of the hand operation unit 12 side
The twist generated in the flexible portion 16 is smoothly absorbed by the protection tube 44 provided at the end on the side of the hand operation portion 12. At this time, since the cover member 40 is made of a rubber material, the cover member 40 can be smoothly twisted together with the protect tube 44. In addition, protect tube 4
Since No. 4 is held in a twisted state, no reaction force is generated due to the twist.

On the other hand, the bending generated in the LG flexible portion 16 is as follows.
The flexible tube 42 having a small radius of curvature is absorbed by flexing flexibly. At this time, protect tube 4
4 is a cover member 40 which is hard to bend because of its large radius of curvature, but does not affect the bending of the LG flexible portion 16.
, It is possible to maintain the same flexibility as the conventional device.

As described above, the electronic endoscope 1 according to the present embodiment
0 indicates that the LG flexible portion 16 has the flexible tube 42 on the LG connector 18 side and the protect tube 44 on the hand operation portion 12 side.
Therefore, the torsion of the LG flexible portion 16 generated on the hand operation portion 12 side can be smoothly absorbed without generating a reaction force. Further, in the present embodiment, since the protect tube 44 having the characteristic that the radius of curvature is large is disposed inside the cover member 40 for preventing bending, it is possible to maintain the same flexibility as the conventional device. it can. Further, in the present embodiment, the cover member 4
Because only the inside of 0 is a protect tube 44,
The size of the hand operation unit 12 does not increase, and the weight of the hand operation unit 12 does not greatly increase. Therefore, the electronic endoscope 10 of the present embodiment can surely reduce the burden on the operator.

The LG flexible portion of the present embodiment is low in cost because the mechanism itself is simple. Further, in the present embodiment, since the connecting portion between the flexible tube 42 and the protect tube 44 is provided inside the cover member 40,
The unevenness of the connecting portion is not visible from the outside, and does not impair the appearance of the endoscope.

The shape of the protection tube 44 is as follows.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, as in a protect tube 44 having a sectional shape shown in FIG. 5, the engaging portion 44A is formed to be curved from the inside, and the engaging portion 44B is curved from the outside. The curved engagement portions 44A and 44B may be firmly engaged with each other.

[0025]

As described above, in the flexible portion structure of the endoscope according to the present invention, since the connecting portion on the side of the hand operating portion and the portion in the vicinity thereof are formed of a twistable tube, the flexible portion is twisted. Can be absorbed smoothly. Further, according to the present invention, since the tube is formed of the protect tube, it is possible to prevent the reaction force from being generated when the torsion of the flexible portion is absorbed. Further, in the present invention, since the protect tube is provided inside the cover for preventing bending, the flexibility of the conventional device can be maintained. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the followability of the flexible part with respect to the operation unit at hand, and it is possible to greatly reduce the burden on the operator.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an electronic endoscope to which a flexible portion structure of an endoscope according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a half sectional view of a main part of the electronic endoscope shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the protection tube shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view illustrating a method of using the electronic endoscope shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a protection tube having a shape different from that of FIG. 3;

[Explanation of symbols]

10: electronic endoscope, 12: hand operation unit, 14: insertion unit,
16 ... LG soft part, 18 ... LG connector, 38 ... electric connector, 40 ... cover member, 42 ... soft tube, 44
... Protective tube, 46 ... Flexible tube

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Mitsuo Kondo 1-324 Uetake-cho, Omiya-shi, Saitama Fuji Photo Optical Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 2H040 CA11 DA03 DA21 4C061 AA04 BB02 CC06 DD03 FF07 FF11 FF22 FF25 FF30 FF42 FF46 JJ01

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a tubular flexible portion structure for connecting an endoscope hand operation portion and an endoscope connector, a connection portion on the hand operation portion side and a portion near the connection portion of the flexible portion are screwable. A flexible portion structure of an endoscope, comprising a flexible tube. 2. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein said tube is a protection tube formed of a threaded tube having an engagement portion, and said protection tube keeps its shape in a twisted state. Flexible mirror structure. 3. The flexible part structure of an endoscope according to claim 2, wherein said tube is covered with a bend preventing cover for preventing said flexible part from being bent.