JP2009291428A - Endoscope system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and surely manage the maintenance of an air/water supplier and a sucking device which are mounted on an endoscope. <P>SOLUTION: An endoscope system includes: the endoscope mounted with an endoscope controller having a sliding component for controlling the flow of a fluid; a sensor for detecting the flow of the fluid to be observed when the sliding component is driven so as to slid (step S3); a counting means for counting the number of times of the flow, based on the detection signal of the sensor (step S4); a memory 54 for storing the integration value of values counted by the counting means; a display means for displaying the integration value stored in the memory 54, and, furthermore, a means for comparing the integration value stored in the memory 54 with a prescribed times value (steps S13, S15), and outputting alarm when the integration value becomes the value of prescribed number of times or more. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus that issues a maintenance timing alarm for an endoscope control apparatus such as an air / water supply apparatus or a suction apparatus.

  The hand operation unit of the endoscope is provided with an air supply / water supply device and a suction device, which are endoscope control devices, as described in Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3 below. The air / water supply device is a device that discharges from the distal end of the endoscope scope through an air / water supply tube while switching between air and water supply liquid, and an air / water supply button (AW button) provided at the hand operating unit It is operated by.

  For example, when a cavity in an organ into which an endoscope scope is inserted is inflated, air is sent into an air / water supply tube at a required pressure. Further, when washing an objective lens provided at the distal end of the scope or washing a cavity in an organ that is a subject, a water feeding solution such as water is fed into the air feeding / water feeding tube at a required pressure.

  Air supply air or water supply liquid is supplied from an air supply device or water supply tank installed separately from the endoscope, and the doctor manually operates the air supply / water supply button to switch between gas and liquid, It is designed to be supplied to the air / water tube.

  The air / water supply device has a structure in which a piston member is slidably inserted into a cylinder. When the doctor closes the opening of the center hole of the piston member with a finger and closes the air outlet, the air supply / water supply device When air is supplied into the air / water supply tube and the doctor pushes the air / water supply button with a finger and pushes the piston member into the cylinder against the elasticity of the spring, the air from the air supply device It is interrupted | blocked by the surrounding surface of a piston member, and the water supply liquid from a water supply tank is supplied in the tube for air / water supply instead.

  The suction device is provided between a suction tube (shared with a forceps hole) communicating with the distal end portion of the endoscope scope and a suction tube connected to a suction facility installed in a hospital. When a piston member urged by a spring is pushed into the cylinder via a suction button (SUC button) in a direction that cuts off the communication with the suction tube, the two are in communication with each other, and dirt in the body cavity It is structured to be sucked to the outside.

Japanese Patent No. 3599093 JP 2007-313047 A JP 2006-149736 A

  Medical devices such as endoscopes are required to have a high degree of reliability in order to ensure patient safety. Therefore, the air / water supply device and suction device that slide each time the operation button is pressed will wear out parts such as the O-ring and the spring pressure of the spring spring will weaken if used for a long time. Must be replaced before doing.

  Conventionally, this replacement time is left to the judgment of a doctor who uses an endoscope or a maintenance staff. However, in recent years, more and more clinics and hospitals use a plurality of endoscopes. Development of a device capable of easily and reliably carrying out fine maintenance management has been desired.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope apparatus that enables easy and reliable maintenance management of an air / water supply apparatus and a suction apparatus mounted on an endoscope.

  An endoscope apparatus according to the present invention includes an endoscope equipped with an endoscope control apparatus having a sliding part for controlling flow of a fluid, and the flow observed when the sliding part is driven to slide. A sensor for detecting the presence / absence of a body flow; a counting unit for counting the number of times the flow is “present” based on a detection signal of the sensor; and a memory for storing an integrated value of the values counted by the counting unit. It is characterized by that.

  The endoscope apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by comprising display means for displaying the integrated value stored in the memory.

  The endoscope apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by comprising a display means for displaying the number of times of driving that is a guideline for replacing the sliding parts.

  The endoscope apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by comprising display means for displaying the number of times of driving that is an indication of the replacement time of the sliding component together with the integrated value stored in the memory.

  An endoscope apparatus according to the present invention includes an endoscope equipped with an endoscope control apparatus having a sliding part for controlling a flow of a fluid, and the flow observed when the sliding part is slid and driven. A sensor for detecting the presence / absence of body flow, a counting means for counting the number of times the flow is “present” based on a detection signal of the sensor, a memory for storing an integrated value of the values counted by the counting means, Comparing means for comparing the integrated value stored in the memory with a predetermined number of times, and alarm means for outputting an alarm when the integrated value becomes equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times by comparison of the comparing means. And

  The alarm means of the endoscope apparatus according to the present invention outputs a caution alarm when the integrated value becomes equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times, and is a guideline for replacement timing of the sliding component that is greater than the predetermined number of times. When the number of times of driving is reached, an exchange instruction alarm is output.

  According to the present invention, the number of times of wear of sliding parts is automatically measured and integrated, so that it is possible to easily determine the part replacement time.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This endoscope apparatus includes an endoscope 10, a peripheral device 30, and a water supply tank 40.

  The endoscope 10 includes a hand operation unit 11, a scope unit 12 that is connected to the hand operation unit 11 and inserted into the body cavity of a patient, and a wearer that is connected to the hand operation unit 11 and connected to the peripheral device 30. Unit 13.

  An imaging element (not shown) is housed in the scope 12 of the endoscope 10 at the tip thereof, and the scope 12 is photographed with an air / water feeding tube 15, a forceps hole 16, and an imaging element. A light guide (not shown) composed of an optical fiber bundle that transmits illumination light from the peripheral device 30 and a signal line connected to the image sensor are inserted.

  The forceps hole 16 is bifurcated in front of the hand operation unit 11, one branch is connected to the forceps insertion port 17, and the other branch side is extended to the hand operation unit 11 as a suction tube 18.

  The light guide (not shown) and the signal line connected to the image sensor are inserted between the mounting unit 13 and the hand operation unit 11, and the air / water supply pipe 21 and the suction pipe 22 are provided. It is inserted.

  The hand operating unit 11 is provided with an air / water supply device 3 and a suction device 5. The air / water supply device 3 is provided in a continuous portion between the air / water supply tube 15 and the air / water supply tube 21, and the suction device 5 is a continuous portion between the suction tube 18 and the suction tube 22. Provided.

  In this embodiment, the air / water supply device 3 has a known structure in which a piston member is slidably inserted into a cylinder and an air / water supply button (AW button) is attached to the head of the piston member. Yes.

  When the doctor closes the center hole opening end of the AW button continuous with the center hole of the piston member with a finger and closes the air outlet, the air from the air supply device, which will be described later, flows through the air / water supply pipe 21 When the doctor pushes the AW button against the elastic force of the elastic spring and pushes the piston member into the cylinder with the finger, the air from the air supply device is supplied to the peripheral surface of the piston member. Instead, the water supply liquid from the water supply tank 40 is supplied into the air / water supply tube 15 through the air / water supply pipe 21.

  The suction device 5 has a well-known structure in the present embodiment, and a piston member urged by a resilient spring in a direction to block communication between the suction tube 18 and the suction tube 22 is used as the piston member. When a doctor pushes a suction button (SUC button) attached to the head of the head and pushes it into the cylinder, they communicate with each other so that filth in the body cavity is sucked to the outside.

  The suction tube 22 inserted through the mounting portion 13 has a structure in which one end is pulled out from the side portion of the mounting portion 13, and this one end portion is connected to a suction device of a hospital facility. Yes.

  The air / water pipe 21 inserted through the mounting portion 13 includes an air pipe 21a and a water pipe 21b. The air supply pipe 21 a and the water supply pipe 21 b are pulled out from the side portion of the mounting portion 13 and connected to the water supply tank 40. The end of the water supply pipe 21 b is inserted in a state where it is submerged in the lower part of the water surface of the water supply tank 40, and the end of the air supply pipe 21 a is inserted in the upper part of the water surface of the water supply tank 40.

  The air supply pipe 21 a is branched at the side of the mounting portion 13, and the branch pipe 21 c passes through the mounting portion 13 and is connected to an air supply device 31 provided in the peripheral device 30. In a state where the doctor opens the air outlet of the AW button of the air / water feeding device 3, the air from the air supply device 31 is released from the head of the AW button through the air feeding tubes 21c and 21a.

  However, when the doctor closes the air outlet of the AW button, the air pressure from the air supply device 31 that has lost the air outlet is supplied into the water supply tank 40, and the water in the water supply tank 40 is pushed out to the water supply pipe 21b. It is supplied up to the air / water supply device 3. When the piston member of the air / water supply device 3 is pushed into the cylinder, water is supplied into the air / water supply tube 15.

  In the illustrated example, the peripheral device 30 includes a video processor 32 having a built-in air supply device 31, a light source device 33 for introducing illumination light into the light guide, and an image sensor provided at the distal end of the endoscope 10. The monitor device 34 displays a video obtained by image processing of the captured image signal of the video processor 32 and the alarm device 35 according to the present embodiment.

  The endoscope apparatus of the present embodiment includes a first flow sensor 37 provided in the middle of the water supply pipe 21b and a second flow sensor 38 provided in the middle of the suction pipe 22, and the two flow sensors 37, The alarm device 35 takes in 38 detection signals.

  In addition, the hand operation unit 11 of the endoscope 10 having the above-described configuration is provided with an RF tag (IC tag) 25 that wirelessly transmits an ID number that identifies the endoscope 10. The information required for is stored.

  FIG. 2 is a functional configuration diagram of the alarm device 35 shown in FIG. The alarm device 35 includes a CPU 51 that performs control arithmetic processing, a ROM 52 that stores a processing program, a RAM 53 that operates as a work memory, a nonvolatile memory 54, an input IF 55 and an output IF 56, and a bus 57 that interconnects them. And an RF tag reader 58 connected to the input IF 55.

  In the nonvolatile memory 54, as shown in the center part of FIG. 3, for each ID of the endoscope, the use frequency data of the air / water supply device 3 mounted on the endoscope 10 and the suction device 5 The number-of-uses data is stored, and the number-of-uses data is updated as will be described later.

  The detection signal of the first flow sensor 37 provided in the water supply pipe 21b shown in FIG. 1 and the detection signal of the second flow sensor 38 provided in the suction pipe 22 are connected to the input IF 55 and output from the output IF. An alarm output described later is output to the monitor device 34.

  The flowchart shown on the left side of FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the data update processing program executed by the CPU shown in FIG.

  When the doctor uses the endoscope 10, the RF tag 25 portion shown in FIG. 1 is brought close to the RF tag reader 58 shown in FIG. 2, and the mounting portion 13 is mounted on the video processor 32. Thereby, CPU51 can acquire the ID number of the endoscope 10 (step S1).

  In the next step S2, the non-volatile memory 54 is searched, the use number data n1 (integrated value of the use number data up to the previous time) of the air / water supply device (AW) 3 of the ID number acquired in step S1, and the suction device 5 usage number data n3 (integrated value of the usage number data up to the previous time) is read out.

  In the next step S3, the detection signals of the first flow sensor 37 and the second flow sensor 38 are monitored. As shown in the uppermost part of FIG. 4, when the doctor presses the AW button of the air / water supply device 3, the water supply pipe 21b and the air / water supply tube 15 communicate with each other, and the second part of FIG. Similarly, water flows through the water supply pipe 21b with a slight time delay. This water flow is detected by the first flow sensor 37.

  Similarly, as shown in the third row of FIG. 4, when the doctor presses the SUC button of the suction device 5, the suction tube 18 and the suction tube 22 communicate with each other, and the distal end portion of the endoscope 10. Air or filth sucked from the air is sucked into the suction equipment installed in the hospital. As a result, as shown in the lowermost stage of FIG. 4, the second flow sensor 38 detects the flow rate.

  When both the first flow rate sensors 37 and 38 have a threshold value of 50% of the flow rate assumed to eliminate the error and the detection signal value of the sensors 37 and 38 exceeds the threshold value, “the operation of the air / water supply device 3 is present” "It is determined that the suction device 5 is operating" and the process proceeds from step S3 to step S4.

  In step S4, when it is determined that “the air / water supply device is in operation”, the air / water supply device counter is counted up, and when it is determined that “the suction device is in operation”, the suction device counter is counted up.

  In the next step S5, the use count data of the corresponding ID number position in the nonvolatile memory 54 is rewritten with the counter-up data, and in the next step S6, it is determined whether or not the use of the endoscope 10 is turned off. When the use is on, the process returns to step S3 to repeatedly execute steps S4, S5, and S6. When the use is off, the data update processing program is terminated.

  The flowchart shown on the right side of FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the alarm processing program executed by the CPU shown in FIG. In step S11, the ID number of the endoscope 10 is acquired in the same manner as in step S1, and in step S12, as in step S2, the number-of-uses data of the air / water supply device 3 with the corresponding ID number is obtained from the nonvolatile memory 54. Then, the use frequency data of the suction device 5 is read out.

  In the following, the use frequency data of the air / water supply device 3 will be described, but the same applies to the use frequency data of the suction device 5.

  Read from the non-volatile memory 54 with “m2” as the number of times used as a guideline for replacing the sliding member (piston member, O-ring, etc.) of the air / water feeding device 3 and “m1” as the number of times less than that. The number-of-use data is “n”.

  First, in step S13, it is determined whether or not n ≦ m1. If the determination result is affirmative (Yes), the number of times the air / water feeding device 3 is used is small. In this case, the process proceeds to step S14, and “use OK” is notified.

  For example, the characters “Use OK” are displayed in blue on the monitor device 34 of FIG. Alternatively, the alarm device 35 has a built-in clock device and analyzes the data totalization result of the nonvolatile memory 54 to determine how many times the endoscope 10 can be used per use of the endoscope 10. You may calculate based on the average frequency | count of use of the air / water supply apparatus 3, and may display it.

  If the determination result of step S13 is negative (No), the process proceeds to step S15, where it is determined whether n ≦ m2. When this determination result is affirmative (Yes), the process proceeds to step S <b> 16 to notify “use caution”. For example, the “use caution” character is displayed in yellow on the monitor device 34 of FIG. Alternatively, it is displayed that the replacement time of the air / water supply device 3 is near.

  If the determination result in step S15 is negative (No), the replacement timing of the air / water supply device 3 has come, so the process proceeds to step S17 to notify “use NG”. For example, the characters “Use NG” and “Replacement time has come” are displayed in red.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, since the maintenance time of the worn part is automatically measured and notified in the endoscope using the worn part, the doctor can concentrate on the examination and treatment, and replace the part. It is possible to perform reliably.

  When a doctor or maintenance staff replaces a part, for example, the usage count data is cleared to 0 from an input device such as a keyboard (not shown) connected to the input IF of FIG.

  In the embodiment described above, the example using the flow sensor has been described. However, since it is only necessary to detect “present” and “none” of the fluid flow, for example, a pressure sensor may be used instead of the flow sensor. Is also possible. Furthermore, the mounting positions of these sensors are not limited to the example shown in FIG. 1 and may be any position as long as signals can be detected.

  In addition, the alarm output is a monitor display, but an audio output may be used. When the alarm output is displayed on the monitor, the integrated value of the use count data up to the previous time may be displayed as it is together with the drive count value as a guide for the replacement time. Further, as a monitor for displaying an alarm, a monitor device for displaying a captured image of the endoscope is also used as a display unit. However, the alarm device may have its own display unit.

  The endoscope apparatus according to the present invention is useful when applied to an endoscope apparatus used in a clinic, a hospital, or the like that uses a plurality of endoscopes, because it automatically measures and informs the replacement timing of wear parts. .

It is a lineblock diagram of an endoscope apparatus concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a functional block diagram of the alarm device shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the data update process program which the alarm device shown in FIG. 2 processes, and the process sequence of an alarm process program. It is a figure which shows the press of the AW button and SUC button shown in FIG. 1, and the detection signal waveform of a flow sensor.

Explanation of symbols

3 Air / Water Supply Device 5 Suction Device 10 Endoscope 11 Hand Operation Unit 12 Scope Unit 13 Mounting Unit 15 Air / Water Supply Tube 16 Forceps Hole 18 Suction Tube 21 Air / Water Supply Tube 21a Air Supply Tube 21b Water Supply Tube 22 Suction Tube 25 RF tag (IC tag)
30 Peripheral device 31 Air supply device 32 Video processor 34 Monitor device 35 Alarm device 37 First flow rate sensor 38 Second flow rate sensor 40 Water supply tank 51 CPU
54 Nonvolatile memory

Claims (6)

  An endoscope equipped with an endoscope control device having a sliding part for controlling the flow of a fluid, and a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the flow of the fluid observed when the sliding part is driven to slide An endoscope device comprising: a counting unit that counts the number of times the flow is “present” based on a detection signal of the sensor; and a memory that stores an integrated value of the values counted by the counting unit. .   The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying the integrated value stored in the memory.   The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying the number of times of driving that serves as a guide for replacing the sliding component.   The endoscope apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit that displays the number of times of driving that is a guideline for replacement timing of the sliding component together with the integrated value stored in the memory.   An endoscope equipped with an endoscope control device having a sliding part for controlling the flow of a fluid, and a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the flow of the fluid observed when the sliding part is driven to slide A counting means for counting the number of times “present” of the flow based on the detection signal of the sensor, a memory for storing an integrated value of the values counted by the counting means, and the integrated value stored in the memory An endoscope apparatus comprising: comparing means for comparing with a predetermined number of times; and warning means for outputting an alarm when the integrated value becomes equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times by comparison of the comparing means.   The warning means outputs a caution warning when the integrated value is equal to or greater than the predetermined number of times, and is replaced when the driving number reaches a value that is greater than the predetermined number of times and is a guideline for replacement timing of the sliding component. The endoscope apparatus according to claim 5, wherein an instruction alarm is output.

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