JP2007089733A - Hood for endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a hood with the rigidity to be enhanced without increasing the wall thickness and with characteristics strong against tearing. <P>SOLUTION: The cylindrical hood 18 for the endoscope formed as a transparent and soft elastic body using silicone rubber is composed of a base part 19 and a hood part 20. Transparent cylindrical film-like reinforcing bodies 21a and 21b are integrally formed and detachably attached to the hood part 20. The film-like reinforcing bodies are made of resin material harder than the material of the hood 18, such as PC, PMMA and PET. The film-like reinforcing bodies may be detachably attached to the inner surface of the hood part 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an endoscope hood, and more particularly to a configuration of a hood that is attached to an endoscope distal end so as to protrude from the distal end surface thereof and that assists in various types of endoscope observation and treatment.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an endoscope hood attached to the distal end portion of an endoscope (scope) has been used, and the configuration of the distal end portion to which this hood is attached is shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, in the endoscope distal end portion 1, an illumination window 2 and an observation window 3 are disposed on the distal end surface (front surface), a light guide 4 is disposed in the illumination window 2, and an objective optical system lens 5 is disposed in the observation window 3. Provided in connection. In addition, a treatment instrument insertion channel 7 for guiding the treatment instrument 6 to the object to be observed is also arranged.

  A cylindrical hood 8 made of a soft synthetic resin is attached to the distal end portion 1, and the hood 8 is fitted to the outer periphery of the distal end portion 1 and protrudes from the distal end surface of the distal end portion 1. It is arranged in the state to do. The hood 8 secures a good observation region (observability) while fixing the treatment portion or the object to be observed with respect to the distal end portion 1 while keeping the observation distance from the endoscope distal end portion 1 constant. And so on.

That is, in the endoscope, not only observation of an object to be observed and simple treatment, but also various advanced techniques such as EMR (endoscopic mucosal resection) and ESD (endoscopic submucosal dissection) have been developed in recent years. In such observation and treatment, the hood 8 has a distance between the object to be observed, the treatment portion, and the tip surface of the tip portion 1 at a desired observation distance. By keeping the treatment section fixed with respect to the endoscope at this distance, it is possible to facilitate excision and peeling. In the ESD, the hood 8 is submerged in the submucosa and the mucosa (upper) is peeled from the submucosa. In this case, the hood 8 is an observation (field of view) region in the submucosa. The role to secure.
Japanese Patent No. 3283451

  However, in the conventional hood 8, the side wall thickness (thickness) t is as thin as 1 mm or less, and because of this thinness, the protruding portion of the hood 8 is not rigid and deforms or bends. In some cases, it is not possible to sufficiently secure the treatment portion, the object to be observed, and the observation region (field region) at a fixed observation distance.

  In order to prevent such deformation and bending of the hood 8, it is conceivable to increase the wall thickness of the cylindrical hood 8. However, if the outer diameter of the hood 8 is increased and the wall thickness is increased as in 8a. The meaning of reducing the diameter of the endoscope distal end 1 is reduced, and conversely, if the inner diameter of the hood 8 is decreased and the wall thickness is increased as in 8b, the distal end portion 1 is disposed on the outer peripheral side of the distal end surface. Further, the inner surface of the illumination window 2 is covered, and there is a disadvantage that the illumination light output from the illumination window 2 is blocked and the observation field of view is narrowed.

  On the other hand, as a material for an endoscope hood, there is an acrylic elastomer as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3283451, which has relatively high hardness, excellent transparency, chemical resistance, and biocompatibility. There is no problem. However, even though this acrylic elastomer has a certain degree of hardness, it has the disadvantage that it is vulnerable to tearing due to the properties of acrylic resin, and if it is attached to an endoscope with a large outer diameter, it will tear during treatment. There is an inconvenience.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope hood that can increase the rigidity of the hood without increasing the wall thickness and has a strong property against tearing. There is.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is an endoscope hood that is attached to an endoscope distal end portion with the hood portion protruding from the distal end surface, and is substantially cylindrical with a soft resin material. And a film-like (thin plate-like) reinforcing body (shape-preserving) formed in a cylindrical shape with a resin material harder than the material of the main body. And a ring).
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the main body has a base portion that is fitted to a side surface of the tip portion and a hood portion that protrudes from the tip end surface of the tip portion, and the film-like reinforcing body is provided on the hood portion. It is characterized by that.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a plurality of film-like reinforcing bodies having different cylindrical wall thicknesses are provided, and an attachment groove is formed in an annular shape on the inner surface of the hood portion, and the plurality of film-like reinforcement bodies are formed in the hood portion attachment groove. It is characterized in that it can be detachably arranged.

According to the configuration of the present invention, for example, a rigid cylindrical film-like reinforcing body made of PC, PMMA, PET or the like is integrally formed on a soft cylindrical hood portion (or main body) made of, for example, silicon rubber. Has a two-layer (or three-layer) structure. The film-like reinforcing body in this case may be adhered to the inside or the outside of the hood part, or may be provided inside the wall of the hood part by insert molding. According to this two-layer structure, the rigidity is higher than in the case of a single layer of silicon rubber, and a strong tearing property is obtained.
In the case of the configuration of claim 3, any of the film-like reinforcing bodies having different wall thicknesses can be detachably attached to the annular mounting groove formed on the inner surface of the hood portion. It becomes possible to set it according to.

  According to the endoscope hood of the present invention, the rigidity of the hood can be increased without increasing the wall thickness, and there is an effect that the hood has a strong characteristic against tearing, and the hood is deformed, bent or torn during treatment. It is possible to prevent various problems such as EMR and ESD.

  1 and 2 show the configuration of the endoscope hood according to the first embodiment, FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the endoscope tip, and FIG. 4 shows the state where the hood of the embodiment is attached. First, the configuration of the distal end portion of the endoscope will be described. In FIG. 3, the distal end surface (front surface) 10 </ b> A of the distal end portion 10 has an observation window 11 connected to an internal objective optical system, and two observation windows 11 arranged on the left and right of the observation window 11 and connected to an internal light guide. An air supply / water supply nozzle 14 for injecting air or water toward the observation window 11 and a treatment instrument insertion channel (outlet port) 16 are provided. The air / water supply nozzle 14 is connected to an air / water supply pipe disposed inside the endoscope, and the treatment instrument insertion channel 16 is inserted from the introduction port of the endoscope operation section. The treatment tool such as the high-frequency knife can be led out from the distal end surface 10A into the observed body.

1 and 2, the hood 18 of the first embodiment is made of a transparent soft elastic body using, for example, silicon rubber (or other resin material), and is formed into a cylindrical shape as a whole. 18 includes a base 19 with a circular fitting hole K ₁ to be fitted to the side surface of the distal portion 10 therein, the front side of the base 19, the hood portion protruding forward from the endoscope distal end face 10A (the projecting portion 20).

And as shown in FIGS. 1 (B) and 1 (C), a resin material that is harder and more transparent than the silicon rubber that is the material of the hood 18, on the inner surface or inside the wall of the cylindrical hood portion 20, For example, there are provided film-like reinforcing bodies 21a and 21b formed in a cylindrical shape (ring shape) using PC (polycarbonate), PMMA (acrylic and its formal name is polymethyl methacrylate), and PET (polyethylene terephthalate). That is, the film-like reinforcing body 21a is integrally formed (insert molding) on the inner surface of the hood portion 20 or bonded to the inner surface after the hood portion 20 is molded. Thus, as in FIG. 1 (B), the hood portion 20 circular openings K ₂ is formed, the hood portion 20, as shown in FIG. 4, observation window 11, two illumination windows 12, The front side of the outer peripheral portion of the distal end surface 10A is covered with all of the air / water supply nozzle 14 and the treatment instrument insertion channel 16 exposed.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1C, the film-like reinforcing body 21b may be inserted and disposed near the outer periphery in the wall (thickness) of the hood portion 20 by insert molding. Again, the circular openings K ₂ to the inner surface of the hood portion 20 is formed. The film-like reinforcing body 21 (a, b) may be arranged on the outer surface of the hood portion 20, or in the case of this outer surface arrangement or when arranged inside as shown in FIG. The film-like reinforcing bodies 21 (a, b) may be wide and arranged in a wide range from the hood portion 20 to the base portion 19 side.

According to such a configuration of the first embodiment, if fitting the fitting hole K ₁ of the base 19 to the endoscope tip portion 10 of FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. 4, the hood 18 is the distal end portion 10 And the hood part 20 is in a state of protruding from the tip surface 10A. The hood 18 is reliably prevented from falling off by wrapping a tape or the like around the connecting portion between the hood 18 and the tip portion 10.

  Since the softer hood 18 is provided with film-like reinforcing bodies 21a and 21b that are harder than the hood 18, the hood portion is compared with a conventional structure composed of one layer of a soft material. Thus, the hood 18 having a high tearing property can be obtained without increasing the wall thickness for improving the rigidity. Accordingly, the hood 18 is prevented from being deformed, bent or torn during various procedures such as EMR and ESD.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of an endoscope hood according to the second embodiment. In the second embodiment, a film-like reinforcing body is detachable. As shown in FIG. 5 (A), on the inner surface of the hood portion 20 of the hood 28, together with the annular attachment groove 20A is formed, the inner diameter r ₁ equal to or larger outer diameter than the of the mounting groove 20A A plurality of film-like reinforcing bodies 21c, 21d (21e...) having a cylindrical shape with r ₂ (r ₁ ≦ r ₂ ) and an inner surface serving as a circular opening hole K ₂ and having different wall thicknesses (film plate thicknesses) are provided. It is done.

According to the second embodiment, the plurality of film-like reinforcing bodies 21c and 21d can be attached to and detached from the mounting groove 20A of the hood portion 20, and when the film-like reinforcing body 21c of FIG. 5A is inserted into the mounting groove 20A. , as shown in FIG. 5 (B), firmly gripped and fixed to the mounting groove 20A filmy reinforcement 21c of larger outer diameter r ₂ than the inner diameter r ₁ of attachment groove 20A is by the elastic force of the receptacle 20 Is done. Further, as shown in FIG. 5C, even when a film-like reinforcement 21d having a wall thickness different from that of the film-like reinforcement 21c is attached, the film-like reinforcement 21d is attached by the elastic force of the hood portion 20. It is firmly held and fixed in the groove 20A.

  In the second embodiment having such a configuration, the strength of the hood portion 20 can be changed according to the purpose of use such as observation and treatment by using the film-like reinforcing bodies 21c and 21d having different wall thicknesses. become.

  In the said Example, although the film-form reinforcement bodies 21a-21d were made into the 1 layer structure or 1 sheet, the thing of a 2 or more layer structure may be used as this film-form reinforcement bodies 21a-21d, and 1 sheet of film You may arrange | position so that several sheet-like reinforcement bodies may be piled up.

1 shows a configuration of an endoscope hood according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. (A) is a front (front) view, and FIGS. (B) and (C) are cross sections taken along line AA in FIG. FIG. It is a perspective view of the hood for endoscopes of FIG. The structure of the endoscope front-end | tip part of an Example is shown, A figure (A) is a front view, A figure (B) is a side view. It is a front view when the food | hood of 1st Example is attached to the front-end | tip part. The structure of the endoscope hood according to the second embodiment is shown. FIG. (A) is a cross-sectional view of a state before a film-like reinforcing body is attached to the hood, and FIGS. (B) and (C) are films on the hood. It is sectional drawing of the state which attached the shape reinforcement body. It is sectional drawing which shows the structure of the conventional endoscope hood.

Explanation of symbols

1, 10 ... End of endoscope, 10A: End surface,
2,12 ... light window 3,11 ... observation window,
7, 16 ... treatment instrument insertion channel, 8, 18, 28 ... hood,
19 ... base, 20 ... hood,
20A ... mounting groove, 21a-21d ... film-like reinforcement,
K ₁ ... fitting hole, K ₂ ... opening hole.

Claims (3)

In the endoscope hood that is attached to the endoscope tip with the hood protruding from the tip surface,
A main body formed in a substantially cylindrical shape with a soft resin material;
An endoscope comprising: a film-like reinforcing body which is provided in an integrally molded or detachable configuration with respect to the main body and is formed in a cylindrical shape with a resin material harder than the material of the main body. For food.   The said main body has the base part fitted to the side surface of the said front-end | tip part, and the hood part which protrudes from the said front-end | tip part front surface, The said film-like reinforcement body was provided in this hood part, It is characterized by the above-mentioned. The endoscope hood according to 1.   A plurality of film-like reinforcing bodies having different cylindrical wall thicknesses are provided, and an annular mounting groove is formed on the inner surface of the hood portion, and the plurality of film-like reinforcing bodies can be detachably disposed in the hood portion mounting groove. The endoscope hood according to claim 2, wherein the endoscope hood is formed.

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