JP2009089925A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent inconveniences such as disconnection and unsoldering of signal lines at the tip portion. <P>SOLUTION: An endoscope incorporates a tip hard portion incorporates a printed board on which an image sensor is mounted and a plurality of signal lines connected to the printed board by soldering. The signal lines are bundled together by a cable 28 and run into an operating portion 12. The interior of the operating portion 127 that is not inserted into a body, a connecting portion 17 for example, has an elasticity adding means 50 to add elasticity to the cable 28. The elasticity granting means 50 is constructed of a band 51 and a plurality of urging members 52. The band 51 is attached to the periphery of the cable 28. The urging members 52 each keep one end attached to the periphery of the band 51 and the other ends to the inside of a flexible tube 23 and absorbs stress involved in the expansion and contraction of the cable 28. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an endoscope including a sensor at a distal end of an insertion portion.

  The endoscope has an insertion portion that is inserted into the body. The insertion portion is provided with a distal end rigid portion, a bending portion, and a flexible tube portion in order from the distal end. The hard end portion is provided with an objective lens, an illumination lens, a forceps outlet, an air supply / water supply port, and the like. The distal end hard portion is formed of a hard resin material, and the flexible tube portion is a portion that connects the operation portion and the bending portion in a long shape with a small diameter, and has flexibility. . The bending portion is bent in any of the up, down, left, and right directions by rotating the operation knob provided in the operation portion at hand. Thereby, the insertion property to the patient can be made smooth, and the distal end hard portion can be directed in a desired direction in the body cavity.

  Inside the insertion portion, a light guide for guiding illumination light to the illumination lens at the distal end hard portion, a forceps tube, and an image sensor for imaging an observation image formed by the objective lens at the distal end hard portion are connected. A plurality of contents such as a multi-core cable in which signal wires are bundled and an air / water supply tube are loosely inserted, and an angle wire for bending the bending portion is also inserted. In addition, in the ultrasonic endoscope, a multi-core cable connected to an ultrasonic transducer disposed at the distal end portion is inserted in addition to the above contents and the like.

  By the way, the bending portion is inserted into the body and bent into various shapes, so that the contents loosely inserted into the insertion portion freely move in the radial direction of the insertion portion and in the longitudinal direction of the insertion portion. Also moves. When the contents move inside the insertion part in this way, some of the contents that have a particularly weak restoring force cannot be returned to their original positions, resulting in clogging of the contents, resulting in light guides and multi-core cables. Problems such as disconnection and tube crushing occur.

  Therefore, when the cables and tubes are covered with elastic thin-walled tubes, and the plurality of thin-walled tubes are bonded together, ensuring freedom of movement of the cables and tubes when bent and moving. An endoscope is known in which a cable and a tube are reliably returned to their original positions by the elastic restoring force of the thin-walled tube (Patent Document 1).

An imaging signal obtained from the imaging sensor is sent to a processor device connected to the endoscope. The processor device incorporates a video signal processing circuit, and the video signal processing circuit displays a captured image on a display unit connected to the processor device. The endoscope and the processor device are connected by a connecting cable, and the length of the connecting cable corresponds to the distance between the patient and the processor device, and is usually determined to be a constant length. For this reason, since the endoscope can be freely moved with respect to the processor device, there has been a problem that it is difficult to operate during examination and treatment with the endoscope. In view of this, an electronic endoscope is also known in which a part of the connecting cable is provided with a retractable spiral portion so that the length of the connecting cable can be adjusted (Patent Document 2).
JP-A-9-94217 JP 2003-38430 A

  By the way, an imaging sensor, for example, a CCD arranged inside the hard tip portion is in the form of a bare chip that is not packaged, and an electrode on the chip is connected to an electrode of a printed circuit board. To this printed circuit board, signal lines inside a multi-core cable arranged through the insertion portion are connected by soldering or the like. It has been found that when a bending or pulling force is applied to the signal line, the signal line is pulled with respect to the substrate, causing inconveniences such as disconnection or solder removal.

  In the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the stress at which the tensile force is repeatedly applied to the external or internal multicore cable of the endoscope can be somewhat reduced. However, in the endoscope described in Patent Document 1, since the multicore cable and the tube inside the insertion portion are connected by a pair of thin tubes, the thickness of the portion may be increased. In addition, the invention described in Patent Document 1 is effective when the multicore cable and the tube move relatively in the insertion direction of the insertion portion, but has a drawback that the range in which the thin tube is attached is difficult to bend. There is.

  Moreover, the electronic endoscope described in Patent Document 2 is provided with a spiral portion for the cable between the endoscope and the processor device. If it is considered that the spiral portion is formed in the multicore cable inside the insertion portion, the insertion portion may be thickened to form the spiral portion.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to reliably prevent inconveniences such as disconnection of a signal line disposed inside the distal end of the insertion portion and removal of solder without increasing the thickness of the insertion portion. An object is to provide an endoscope.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the endoscope of the present invention, an operation that does not insert elasticity applying means for applying elasticity to a cable in which a plurality of signal lines connected to a sensor provided at the distal end of the insertion section are bundled is not inserted into the body. It is provided in the vicinity of the part.

  A flexible tube that forms the outer periphery of the insertion portion enters and is fixed to the connection portion that connects the operation portion and the insertion portion. Therefore, the elasticity applying means includes a narrow band attached to the outer periphery of the cable, and a biasing member having one end connected to the band and the other end connected to the inner wall of the flexible tube. It is preferable to do this. In addition, you may attach to the inner wall of an operation part instead of the inner wall of a flexible tube.

  In addition to the cable, contents such as a light guide, a forceps tube, a jet spraying tube, and an air / water feeding tube are loosely inserted inside the flexible tube. Therefore, as the elasticity imparting means, a narrow first band attached to the outer periphery of the cable, a narrow second band attached to the outer periphery of any of a plurality of contents other than the cable, An urging member that connects the first and second bands may be used.

  Furthermore, the elasticity imparting means may be a slack portion having elasticity formed in a part of the cable. According to this, the tensile force can be absorbed by the extension of the slack portion.

  According to the endoscope of the present invention, since the elasticity applying means for applying an elastic force to the cable is provided inside the operation unit that is not inserted into the body, it can be incorporated without having to worry about the diameter. Thereby, disconnection and solder removal can be reliably prevented.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic endoscope 10 has an elongated shape including an insertion portion 11, an operation portion 12, a universal cord portion 13, and the like. The insertion portion 11 is formed in a tubular shape, and is composed of a distal end rigid portion 14, a bending portion 15, and a flexible tube portion 16 in order from the distal end. The flexible tube portion 16 is connected to the operation portion 12 via the connection portion 17. One end of the universal cord portion 13 is connected to the operation portion 12, and the connector portion 18 at the other end is connected to a processor device 19, an air supply device (not shown), a light source device (not shown), and the like. The processor device 19 is provided with a video signal processing unit for performing image processing on an image pickup signal obtained from an image pickup sensor built in the hard tip portion 14 and encoding it into a composite signal or an RGB component signal.

  The distal end hard portion 14 is formed of a hard resin material, and the flexible tube portion 16 is a portion connecting the operation portion 12 and the bending portion 15 with a small diameter and a long shape, and is flexible. Have. The bending portion 15 bends in the vertical and horizontal directions as the wire inserted in the insertion portion 11 is pushed and pulled in conjunction with the operation of the angle knob 12 a provided in the operation portion 12. Thereby, the distal end hard portion 14 is directed in a desired direction in the body cavity, and the observation site imaged by the imaging sensor is displayed on the display unit 20 via the video signal processing circuit. Reference numeral 21 denotes a forceps port through which the treatment tool is inserted, and the forceps port 21 is connected to a forceps tube 26 disposed in the insertion portion 11 as indicated by a dotted line.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the flexible tube portion 16 includes light guides 24 and 25 for guiding illumination light to the illumination lens of the distal end hard portion 14, a forceps tube 26, an air supply, inside the flexible tube 23. A plurality of contents such as the water supply tube 27, the multicore cable 28, and the jet injection tube 29 are loosely inserted. The multi-core cable 28 is a cable for mainly sending a signal for driving the imaging sensor from the video signal processing unit and sending an imaging signal obtained from the imaging sensor to the video signal processing unit. The cross-sectional shape is covered with a protective coating. In addition, the code | symbol 30 is an angle wire for operating the bending part 15, and is penetrated in the close_contact | adherence coil pipe 30a.

  The flexible tube 23 is called a screw tube 23a called a flex that protects the inside while maintaining flexibility in order from the inside, and a blade that covers the screw tube 23a and prevents the extension of the screw tube 23a. It is composed of three layers: a net 16b and an outer layer 16c in which a resin is deposited on the net 16b.

  As shown in FIG. 3, an observation window 31, illumination windows 32 and 33, a jet injection outlet 34, a forceps outlet 35, and an air / water supply nozzle 36 are exposed on the distal end surface 14 a of the distal end hard portion 14. Is provided. The observation window 31 is provided with a part of an imaging lens for taking in image light of a site to be observed in the body cavity. The illumination windows 32 and 33 incorporate a part of an illumination lens, and guide the illumination light emitted from the light source device by the light guides 24 and 25 to irradiate the observation site in the body cavity. The forceps outlet 35 communicates with a forceps port 21 provided in the operation unit 12 via a forceps tube 26. The air / water supply nozzle 36 injects cleaning water or air for removing dirt from the observation window 31 by operating an air / water supply button provided in the operation unit 12. The jet injection outlet 34 injects fluid supplied from the air supply device, such as air or carbon dioxide gas, toward the site to be observed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, a part of the imaging lens 37 is exposed in the observation window 31. The illumination light emitted from the illumination windows 32 and 33 is incident on the observation window 31 after reflecting the observation site. Subject light incident from the observation window 31 enters the prism 38 through the imaging lens 37 and bends inside the prism 38 to form an image on the imaging surface of the image sensor 39. The imaging sensor 39, for example, a CCD, is in the form of a bare chip that is not packaged, and the electrode on the chip is connected to the electrode of the printed circuit board 40 by wire bonding, TAB (tape automated bonding), flip chip, or the like. Has been. This printed circuit board 40 is also fixed inside the hard tip portion 14.

  As described in detail in FIG. 5, a plurality of signal lines 42 exposed from the rear end of the multicore cable 28 are connected to the printed circuit board 40 by soldering or the like to terminals 43 of the printed circuit board 40. The signal line 42 is an insulated wire in which a conductor is covered with an insulator. The multi-core cable 28 has a protective film removed before the printed circuit board 40 and exposes a plurality of signal lines 42. The terminal 43 is connected to a conductor from which the insulator of the signal line 42 is peeled off. When the flexible tube portion 16 is bent or the bending portion 15 is bent, the base of the multicore cable 28 is fixed inside the operation portion 12, so that the multicore cable 28 is connected to the operation portion 12. The signal line 42 is also pulled with respect to the printed circuit board 40 along with this.

  The connection part 17 which is the tip of the operation part 12 is a range where it is not inserted into the body, and as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the thickness gradually decreases toward the tip hard part 14, In addition, at the inside, the base of the flexible tube portion 17 is fixed by the distal end of the operation portion housing 44 constituting the outer wall of the operation portion 12 and the folding rubber 41. A fixing portion 46 that fixes the base of the multicore cable 28 is disposed inside the operation portion housing 44. Inside the connecting portion 17 and closer to the distal end hard portion 14 than the fixed portion 46, an elasticity applying means 50 is provided to give an elastic force to the multi-core cable 28 in which a plurality of signal wires are bundled. Inconveniences such as disconnection of the signal line inside the tip and solder removal are prevented.

[Embodiment 1]
The elasticity applying means 50 includes a band (elastic body) 51 formed in a material ring shape having elasticity, and a plurality of urging members 52. The band 51 is fixed to the outer periphery of the multicore cable 28. Each urging member 52 has one end attached to the outer periphery of the band 51 and the other end attached to the inner wall of the flexible tube 23 that is shifted from the one end in the direction of the fixed portion 46 in the insertion direction. Each urging member 52 connects the flexible tube 23 and the band 51 so that the mounting position shifted in the insertion direction (the mounting position shown in FIG. 6) becomes an equilibrium position where the biasing member 52 returns to the original position. The multi-core cable 28 is provided with a slack portion 53 loosely inserted in a wave shape between the band 51 and the fixing portion 46. In addition, as the band 51, you may use a well-known thing besides a ring-shaped elastic body.

  According to this, even when the multi-core cable 28 is pulled toward the distal end hard portion 14, the band 51 moves toward the distal end hard portion 14 due to the extension of the biasing member 52. No pulling force is applied to the signal line. Furthermore, since the slack portion 53 is provided closer to the operation portion 12 than the band 51, the stress on the signal line inside the distal end hard portion 14 can be kept low by the extension of the extra length. When the stress is released, the multi-core cable 28 returns to the original position by the urging of the urging member 52, and the slack portion 53 is formed again. By using the band 51, the attachment width along the insertion direction into the multi-core cable 28 is shorter than that of the thin tube described in the prior art, so that the follow-up operation with respect to stress can be dealt with more flexibly. In addition, since the urging member 52 itself expands and contracts in the insertion direction, the slack portion 53 may be omitted.

  The number of urging members 52 is not limited as long as it is two or more. Further, as the attachment position of the urging member 52, an equally divided position in the circumferential direction is suitable. In addition, as the urging member 52, one end and the other end are attached while being shifted in the insertion direction, but they may not be shifted. Furthermore, the other end of the urging member 52 can be attached to any of the spiral tube, the mesh tube, or the outer skin of the flexible tube 23. Since the spiral tube or the mesh tube has a gap, it can be attached to the inside through the gap. Further, the other end of the urging member 52 may be attached to the inner wall of the operation unit housing 44.

[Embodiment 2]
The pulling force generated by the bending of the flexible tube portion 16 or the bending operation of the bending portion 15 does not act only in the insertion direction, and also occurs due to a difference in inner and outer lengths due to bending, for example, and thus acts in other directions. Further, not only the multi-core cable 28 but also the other contents 24-27 move together. Therefore, the multicore cable 28 and other contents 24 to 27 may be connected by the elasticity applying means 50.

  As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, for example, the elasticity applying means 50 according to the second embodiment includes a first band 60, a second band 61, and an urging member 62 that connects them. The first and second bands 60 and 61 are made of an elastic material and are formed in a narrow ring shape. The first band 60 is on the outer periphery of the multi-core cable 28, and the second band 61 is the outer periphery of the forceps tube 26. Is attached. The second band 61 is attached to a position shifted from the first band 60 toward the distal end hard portion 14 in the insertion direction. The urging member 62 connects the first and second bands 60 and 61 so that the mounting position shifted in the insertion direction (the mounting position shown in FIG. 8) becomes an equilibrium position that returns to the original position. The urging member 62 is extendable in both the insertion direction and the radial direction. Reference numeral 65 denotes a support member that supports the forceps tube 26 inside the connection portion 17. In addition to the forceps tube 26, the contents to which the second band 61 is attached may be any of the light guides 24 and 25, the air / water supply tube 27, and the jet injection tube 29.

[Embodiment 3]
Further, as the elasticity applying means, the bands 51, 60, 61 and the urging members 52, 62 are omitted. For example, as shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. Only the slack portion 72 having elasticity, which is formed by connecting the curved portions 70 and the wavy portions 71 directed to each other, may be provided.

  In each of the above embodiments, the flexible tube 23 in a range fixed by the inner walls of the anti-bending rubber 41 and the operation unit housing 44 is a tube having a straight cross section. In order to arrange 50 or the like, the flexible tube 23 having a tapered cross section in which the operation portion 12 side has a large diameter and the distal end hard portion 14 side has a small diameter may be used.

  Moreover, although each said embodiment demonstrated as the electronic endoscope 10, this invention is employable also for an ultrasonic endoscope.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the use condition of an electronic endoscope. It is sectional drawing which shows the inside of a flexible tube part. It is explanatory drawing which shows the front-end | tip of a front-end | tip hard part. It is sectional drawing which shows the inside of the front-end | tip hard part which has connected the signal wire of the multi-core cable to the printed circuit board, and is seen from the side. It is explanatory drawing which shows the principal part which has connected the signal wire | line of a multicore cable to the printed circuit board, and is seen from the plane. It is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the first embodiment in which elasticity applying means is attached to a multicore cable inside an operation unit that is not inserted into the body. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the principal part of the elasticity provision means demonstrated in FIG. It is a cross-sectional view which shows the example of 2nd Embodiment which attached the elasticity provision means to the multicore cable and forceps tube inside the operation part which is not inserted in a body. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the principal part of the elasticity provision means demonstrated in FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example which provided the curved part which made the convex toward the outer periphery in a part of multicore cable. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example which provided the wavy part in a part of multi-core cable.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 Display part 28 Multi-core cable 40 Printed circuit board 42 Signal line 50 Elasticity provision means 51, 60, 61 Band 52, 62 Energizing member 53, 72 Slack part

Claims (4)

A plurality of signal lines inserted into an insertion portion to be inserted into the body and an operation portion connected to the insertion portion are connected to a sensor provided inside the distal end of the insertion portion, and the signal In an endoscope that transmits a signal obtained from the sensor via a wire,
An endoscope characterized in that an elasticity applying means for applying an elastic force to a cable in which the plurality of signal lines are bundled is provided inside the operation section.   The elasticity applying means includes a narrow band attached to the outer periphery of the cable, and a biasing member having one end connected to the band and the other end connected to the inside of the operation unit. The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein   The elasticity applying means is attached to the outer periphery of any one of a plurality of contents other than the cable, and a narrow first band attached to the outer periphery of the cable and the operation portion. The endoscope according to claim 1, comprising: a narrow second band that is formed; and a biasing member that connects the first and second bands.   The endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the elasticity applying means is a slack portion having elasticity formed in a part of the cable.

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