JPH0665334B2 - Endoscope device - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an endoscope apparatus having a function of cleaning pipelines such as air supply, water supply, and suction.

[Prior Art] In general, an endoscope incorporates a conduit, a nozzle, a valve, and the like for performing suction, air supply, water supply, and the like. Then, in order to prevent nosocomial infection and clogging of nozzles and the like, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the inside of the duct after using the endoscope.

Generally, the endoscope is placed in a washing tank, the outer surface of the endoscope is washed by a jet nozzle, and a washing tube is connected to each duct provided in the endoscope. By feeding the cleaning water, the respective pipelines are cleaned.

Further, as shown in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 57-7506, it has been proposed that a part of the cleaning device is also used as an air / water supply means of an endoscope. In this case, after the endoscopic examination is completed, rinsing, washing with a detergent, disinfection, air supply, etc. are automatically performed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, during the series of steps, no indication is given to the doctor or the nurse who handles the endoscope that this is being done. Therefore, in the unlikely event that these series of steps are mistakenly started during the endoscopic examination, rinsing water, detergent, antiseptic solution, and a large amount of air are sent into the patient's body. Moreover, the condition inside the body cavity cannot be known except by the doctor looking into the eyepiece part, and even if an erroneous operation occurs, the nurse cannot immediately and clearly know the fact. Doctors do not necessarily look into the eyepiece during endoscopy, but they keep their eyes away while the nurse prepares the treatment tool, and water feeding and rinsing are similar. Therefore, it may be delayed to find an error.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to capture an image of the inside of a body cavity with a solid-state image sensor during an endoscopic examination and display this on a monitor. In the cleaning process after the endoscopy, a comment is displayed on the monitor to display a comment about the cleaning, and if a cleaning operation is accidentally performed during the endoscopy, a doctor, a nurse, etc. Is to provide an endoscopic device capable of instantaneously knowing the fact.

[Means and Action for Solving the Problem] The present invention provides an endoscope provided with an observation window and a solid-state image sensor, and provided with conduits for air supply, water supply, suction, and the like; Signal processing means for signal processing and displaying a visual field image on a monitor, and air supply, water supply,
An endoscope control device provided with a conduit control means for controlling a conduit function such as suction, wherein the conduit control means performs a predetermined conduit cleaning operation and the monitor It is equipped with a pipeline cleaning control means for displaying a comment regarding pipeline cleaning.

During the endoscopic examination, the inside of the body cavity is imaged by the solid-state imaging device and is displayed on the monitor, and in the washing step after the endoscopic examination, a comment regarding the washing is displayed on the monitor.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic structure of an endoscope apparatus.
In the figure, 1 is an endoscope and 2 is an endoscope control device.

The main body of the endoscope 1 is composed of an insertion portion 3, an operation portion 4 and a cable 5 which are inserted into a body cavity, and an extended tip end of the cable 5 is connected to the endoscope control device 2. At the tip of the insertion portion 3, there are provided an observation window 6, an air / water supply nozzle 7 that also serves as air / water supply to the observation window 6, three illumination windows 8, a suction port 9, a front water supply port 10, and the like. There is.

Inside each of the three illumination windows 8, three white lamps 12 facing each other with red, green and blue color filters 11 interposed respectively are installed. Then, each of the white lamps 12 is connected to an illumination control circuit 13 in the endoscope control device 2, and is thereby selectively turned on.

A solid-state image sensor (CCD) 14 is installed inside the observation window 6. The solid-state image pickup device 14 is connected to a video process circuit 15 in the endoscope control device 2. A frame memory 16 and a monitor 17 are connected to the video process circuit 15. The frame memory 16 stores contents 1, 2, 3, 4 described later.

The air / water supply nozzle 7 is connected to an air supply passage 18 and a water supply passage 19 in the endoscope 1. Then, the air supply path 18 and the water supply path 19 are guided into the endoscope control device 2, and the air supply path 18 serves as an air supply source of the air supply means for the air supply path via the check valve 20. Connected to the first pump P ₁ of the. Furthermore, the first
A gas tank 21 is connected to the discharge side of the pump P ₁ via a _first valve V _1, and a relief valve 22 is connected via a _second valve V ₂ . The water supply path 19 is connected to a water supply tank 23 as a water supply source of the water supply means for the water supply path and the water supply means for the air supply path via the fourth valve V ₄ . The water supply tank 23 is connected to the second pump P ₂ as an air supply source of the air supply means for the air supply passage. The second pump P ₂ is the third pump
Is connected to the water supply passage 19 via a valve V ₃ .

The air supply passage 18 and the water supply passage 19 are connected to each other via a _fifth valve V ₅ . The first pump P ₁ , first to fifth
The respective valves V ₁ , V ₂ , V ₃ , V ₄ , V ₅ are connected to an air / water supply control circuit (pipe line control means) 24 for controlling the air supply means and the water supply means, respectively. This air / water control circuit 24
Are connected to an air / gas feeding switch S ₁ and a water feeding switch S ₂ provided on the operation unit 4, respectively. The air / water control circuit 24 as the conduit control means receives a signal from the standby switch S ₇ and receives a standby operation command from the central control circuit 36 as described later, and performs a predetermined water supply operation to perform the conduit function. It is ready to be prepared.

The suction port 9 is connected to a suction path 25 that also serves as a forceps channel of the endoscope 1. The suction passage 25 is connected to the fourth pump P ₄ through a liquid storage tank 26 provided in the endoscope control device 2. Reservoir tank 26 and fourth pump
An eighth valve V ₈ is inserted in the flow path 27 between the flow path 27 and P _4, and a humidity sensor 28 and a pressure sensor 29 are provided in the flow path 27. The eighth valve V ₈ , the humidity sensor 28 and the pressure sensor 29 are connected to a suction control circuit 31. The suction control circuit 31 is connected to the suction switch S ₃ provided on the operation unit 4. It should be noted that a forceps plug 32 provided in the operation portion 4 is connected in the middle of the suction path 25 that also serves as a forceps channel of the endoscope 1.

The front water supply port 10 is connected to a front water supply passage 33, and this front water supply passage 33 is connected to a front water supply tank 34 via a _seventh valve V ₇ , and this front water supply tank 34 has a third Pump P ₃ is connected. The third pump P ₃ is directly connected to the front water supply channel 33 side via a _sixth valve V _6, and the seventh valve V ₇ is inserted in the water supply channel 33. . In addition, the seventh valve V ₇ , the third pump V ₃ and the sixth
The valve V ₆ is connected to the front water supply control circuit 35 as a conduit control means for controlling water supply. The front water supply control circuit 35 is connected to the front water supply switch S ₄ provided on the operation section ₄ and a foot switch S ₄ ′.

A central control circuit 36 is provided in the endoscope control device 2, and the central control circuit 36 is the illumination control circuit.
13, video process circuit 15, frame memory 16, air / water supply control circuit 24, suction control circuit 31, and forward water supply control circuit
35 are each connected. In addition, the endoscope control device 2
Is provided with various operation switches. That is, the air supply / gas supply switch S ₅ , the air supply relief switch S ₆ , the standby switch S ₇ , the water supply tank residual water amount confirmation switch S ₈ , the observation start switch S ₉ , the observation stop switch.
S ₁₀ , remove switch S ₁₁ , simplified remove switch S ₁₂
And a drain switch S ₁₃ is provided.

Next, each operation of this endoscope apparatus will be sequentially described.

(Standby Operation) ... See FIG. 2 This operation is to connect the endoscope 1 to the endoscope control device 2 so that each duct system can be inspected before the inspection.
For this, first, by pressing the standby switch S ₇ , the central control circuit 36 commands the air / water control circuit 24 to drive the _first pump P ₁ . The first pump P ₁ operates intermittently (T ₆ , T ₇ ), as shown in FIG.
To inhale intermittently. As a result, residual water that may remain in the air supply passage is discharged from the air supply / water supply nozzle 7 on the tip side. The reason why the air is supplied to the air supply path 18 intermittently is that the discharging force is stronger than that of the air that is constantly supplied.

Here, by thoroughly draining water, when air is supplied during the inspection, residual water in the air supply path 18 does not come out and is sprayed on the observation window 6 so as not to obstruct the observation visual field. That is, the inspection cannot be interrupted. During this operation, the first valve V ₁ and the second valve V ₂ are closed,
All the air feeding force of the first pump P ₁ can be utilized, and a strong air feeding is performed.

On the other hand, the air at the same time as the start, air and water supply control circuit 24 serving as a conduit control means for controlling the water supply, the predetermined water supply operation based on a command from the central control circuit 36 which receives the signal of standby switch S ₇ Prepare the pipeline function. That is, the second pump P ₂ also starts to operate at the same time as the start of the air supply, and the fourth valve V ₄ is also opened to supply the water to the water supply passage 19. When this water supply is performed for a fixed time (T ₈ ), the water supply channel 19 is filled with water. After this time (T ₈ ) has passed, the 4th valve
V ₄ is automatically closed water stops. However, the second pump P ₂ continues to operate, increasing the pressure in the water supply tank 23.
As a result, when water is supplied during the inspection, it is possible to immediately start reliable water supply with a large water supply amount, improve water supply operability, and increase the water supply amount to enhance the cleaning power. Also,
Before the inspection and use, the inner surface of the water supply channel 19 becomes wet in advance, and even if filth or the like flows back during the inspection and use, it is easy to wash off by water supply.

In addition, an operation similar to such a water supply operation is also performed in the front water supply system. That is, in response to the standby operation command from the central control circuit 36, the front water supply control circuit 35 prepares a pipe function for a predetermined water supply operation. Activate the second pump P ₃ ,
Open the seventh valve V ₇ . The front water supply passage 33 is filled with water, and after a certain time (T ₈ ), the seventh valve V ₇ is automatically closed and the water supply is stopped. The second pump P ₃ continues to operate,
The front water tank 34 is in a pressurized state.

Furthermore, the fourth suction pump P ₄ has started its operation at the same time as the operation of the standby switch S ₇ , and continues to operate steadily thereafter. Then, the suction operation is turned on and off by opening and closing the eighth valve V ₈ . Here, a case where the cleaning liquid is sucked into the suction passage 25 for cleaning will be described. For this purpose, the tip of the endoscope 1 must be immersed in the cleaning liquid. Further, after the cleaning, the cleaning liquid in the suction passage 25 must be removed by suction. Therefore, the tip of the endoscope 1 is pulled out from the cleaning liquid halfway. Although this work is performed by a person, if this is not done securely, the cleaning may be insufficient or the cleaning liquid may remain.

Therefore, to ensure this, monitor the instructions.
Display comments on 17 and change the color of illumination light.

First, during the time (T ₉ ) from the start, on the monitor 17,
The content 1 “Please insert the tip of the endoscope into the cleaning liquid” stored in the frame memory 16 is displayed. Further, during this time (T ₉ ), the white lamp 12 corresponding to the red filter 11 is turned on to illuminate red, and the color is displayed as the background color on the monitor 17. Therefore, the content 1 can be known also by the color. Then, at the subsequent time (T ₁₀ ), the content displayed on the monitor 17 is changed to display the content 2, “Please remove the tip of the endoscope from the cleaning liquid.” Further, the white lamp 12 corresponding to the blue filter 11 is turned on to perform blue illumination, and the background of the monitor 17 is changed to blue.

If the work is performed while receiving such an instruction, the work can be surely processed without error. Moreover, if the meaning of the color of the illumination is memorized, the content can be discriminated without looking at the monitor 17. If the color of the characters of the contents 1 and 2 or the background color is matched with the illumination light, the meaning of the color can be easily remembered.

By the way, if there is water in the middle of the suction passage 25, the negative pressure inside the suction passage becomes large, and it is higher than this under normal conditions. It is detected by the pressure sensor 29 and remains when the negative pressure is large. If there is water, suction is continued until the negative pressure becomes small. At this time, the display on the monitor 17 (content 2)
And blink the illumination light to call attention.

Further, the humidity sensor 28 provided in the middle of the suction passage 25 is provided with a fourth pump P ₄ for the suction pump when the liquid overflows into the liquid reservoir tank 26.
When sewage is about to flow to the side, this is detected and the fourth pump P ₄ is immediately stopped. Therefore, damage to the pump P _{4 and the} like can be prevented in advance.

The observation is not possible until the standby operation is completed, and therefore, the endoscope 1 is not inserted into the body cavity of the patient while the standby operation is not completed, It's safe.

(Water tank remaining water confirmation operation) If the water in the water tank 23 runs out during the inspection, air will be sent as if water had been sent, which is extremely dangerous. Therefore, a method of detecting the residual water amount in the water supply tank 23 and not operating the second pump P ₂ for water supply may be considered, but here, a manual water supply tank residual water amount confirmation switch S ₈ is provided, Contents 3 stored in the frame memory 16 on the monitor 17 when the standby operation is finished
Is displayed.

In other words, the message "Check if the water in the water tank is clean and if it is sufficient, and if it is OK, press the remaining water amount confirmation switch." Is displayed. It is important to note that if you do not change the water in the water tank 23 for many days,
It's not sanitary because it rots, but it doesn't seem like it can be changed every day in actual use. Therefore, if only the residual water amount is detected and it can be used as it is, there is a risk that the user will not be more concerned about water.

In this regard, here, as described above, the water supply tank residual water amount confirmation switch S ₈ is provided, and if the water supply tank residual water amount confirmation switch S ₈ is not pressed, the observation start switch S ₉ cannot be observed. . For this reason, observation is possible only after confirmation of the residual water amount and the like, which is safe and sanitary. After this confirmation, if the water supply tank residual water amount confirmation switch S ₈ is pressed, the display of the content 3 on the monitor 17 disappears.

In addition, "Please confirm whether the capacity of the liquid storage tank is sufficient." May be added to the content 3 above.

(Observation start operation) When the observation start switch S ₉ is pressed after confirming the remaining water amount, the visual field image formed on the solid-state image sensor 14 is converted into an electrical signal, and the video process circuit 15 performs signal processing. And is displayed on the monitor 17. At this time, white lamp
12 is sequentially turned on to provide illumination light of each color.

(Air-supply / gas-supply switching operation) ... See FIG. 3. To switch between gas-supply and gas-supply operations, operate the gas-supply / gas supply switch S ₅ to make a selection. That is, the gas supply / gas switching switch S ₅ is a switch of two alternatives. When the gas supply side is set to the gas supply side, the _first gas supply gas switch S ₁ is pressed while the gas supply gas switch S ₁ is pressed.
Pump P ₁ is activated to deliver air. Further, similarly, in this state, the air supply relief switch S ₆ can be switched to the closed state or the relief state. When the air supply relief switch S ₆ is closed, the second valve V ₂ is closed and the first pump V ₂ is closed.
All the air from P ₁ is sent. When the air supply relief switch S _{6 is set} to the relief side, the second valve V ₂ communicates, and when the air supply pressure exceeds a certain level, it leaks to the outside and avoids the risk of damaging the body cavity organ by supplying more air than necessary. . The relief pressure can be changed and adjusted within the range of 0.15 kg / cm ² to 0.3 kg / cm ² .

Next, when the gas / gas feeding switch S ₅ is switched to the gas feeding side, when the gas / gas feeding switch S ₁ is pressed, the first valve V ₁ is opened and gas feeding is performed. At this time, the second valve V ₂ is always in the communication state regardless of the air supply relief switch S _6, and the pressure of a certain amount or more leaks to the outside. When a carbon dioxide gas cylinder is used as the gas tank 21, the pressure due to this carbon dioxide gas cylinder is cm ²
High pressure of several tens of kg per unit. Then, this is usually lowered to a safe pressure by using a regulator. However, the adjusting pressure varies considerably depending on the hospital that uses it, and it is likely that the adjusting pressure is set to be considerably high.
However, since the relief valve 22 is always operated in the above configuration, it is safe for the patient even if the regulator should fail.

(Water supply operation) See Fig. 4. When performing the water supply operation, it is carried out only while the water supply switch S ₂ is pressed, but at a constant interval T ₁ even during the water supply operation.
Activates the _first pump P ₁ only during time T ₂ . Therefore, since the air is intermittently added during the water supply and the mixed fluid of water and air is blown to the observation window, the cleaning power is much larger than that of the case where only water is used. If the air is continuously supplied, there is a risk of excessive air supply, so the air is intermittently supplied.

Also, after releasing the air supply switch S _{1 for} a certain period
During T ₃ , air is automatically sent to remove water drops on the observation window. Therefore, there is no water drop on the observation window after the water is sent, and the observation is not supported.

(Suction) ... See FIG. 5. When performing suction, the suction switch S ₃ is pressed and suction is performed only while the switch is pressed.

(Front water supply operation) ... See FIG. 6 This is performed while the front water supply switch S ₄ or the foot switch S ₄ ′ is being pressed. Also at this time, the sixth valve V ₆
Since it opens and closes in the cycle of the periods T ₄ and T ₅ , it becomes a mixture of air and water, and the cleaning power is strong.

(Remove operation) ... See Fig. 7. Press the remove switch S ₁ to perform remove operation. That is, the second and third pumps P ₂ and P ₃ are activated, and the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth valves V ₄ , V ₅ , V ₇ and V ₈ are opened,
During the period T ₁₂ , water is supplied to the air supply passage 18, the water supply passage 19, and the front water supply passage 33. Further, during the subsequent period T ₁₅ , the third and sixth valves V ₃ and V ₆ are opened / closed to form a fluid of gas-water mixture, which is fed to the water passage 19 and the forward water passage 33, and the inside thereof. Wash strongly. Further, during the subsequent period T ₁₇ , the third and sixth valves V ₃ and V ₆ are kept open to supply the air to the water supply passage 19 and the front water supply passage 33 to remove the water therein. To do. Furthermore, in the subsequent period T ₂₀ ,
The second and third pumps P ₂ and P ₃ are intermittently operated to intermittently supply air to strongly discharge water drops. Then, in the last period T _21, feed opening the valve _{V 3, V 4, V 6} , V 7, V 9 leading to waterways 19 and the forward water supply channel 33, the pressure of the water supply tank 23 and the forward water tank 34 large Make it equal to atmospheric pressure.

Further, the suction passage 25 performs the same operation as the standby operation described above.

When these remove operations are completed, the monitor
In 17th, there is a content 4 "Cleaning of the inside of the flow path is completed. You can pull out the endoscope from the endoscope control device."
Is displayed.

(Simple remove operation) See FIG. 8. When the remove operation is not always necessary, for example, a large number of patients must be treated, and those patients do not carry infectious viral bacteria. When it is obvious, the cleaning of the air supply passage 18 can be omitted. The cleaning operation in this case is a simple remove. That is, after the water is supplied to the water supply path 19 and the front water supply path 33 for the period T ₂₄ , the water is supplied to the air supply path 18, the water supply path 19, and the front water supply path 33 for the period T ₂₅ . The suction path 25 is the same as the standby operation described above. However, the time is shorter than that of the remove operation.

(Drainage operation) See Fig. 9. This operation is performed after the entire endoscope is immersed in a chemical solution.
Used when draining each flow path.

If the remove operation is started while the endoscope 1 is being inserted into the patient, air supply and water supply are automatically performed, which is dangerous. But here, the observation stop switch
The S ₁₀ is provided, if not press it, and so that the remove operation is not performed. When observing stop switch S ₁₀ is pressed, the illumination and imaging is stopped. Therefore, it is safe to remove the endoscope 1 from the patient, press the observation stop switch S ₁₀ , and then press the remove switch S ₁₁ so that the remove operation is performed.

As is apparent from the above description, this endoscope apparatus constitutes a conduit control means for controlling conduit functions such as air supply, water supply, and suction by the central control circuit 36 and the like, and a predetermined conduit When the road cleaning operation is performed, the monitor 17
The pipeline cleaning control means for displaying a comment regarding pipeline cleaning is configured. Therefore, even if the cleaning operation is accidentally performed during the endoscopic examination,
In 17, a comment regarding the pipeline cleaning is displayed.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, according to the present invention, the inside of a body cavity is imaged by a solid-state imaging device during an endoscopic examination, and this is displayed on a monitor, and cleaning is performed after the endoscopic examination. In the process, a comment indicating the cleaning is displayed on the monitor, and if the cleaning operation is mistakenly performed during the endoscopic examination, both the doctor and the nurse will be notified of the fact. You can know instantly. You can deal with the situation immediately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a schematic configuration of an endoscope apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a time chart of the standby operation of the endoscope apparatus. FIG. 3 is a time chart showing the operation of air supply and gas supply of the endoscope apparatus. FIG. 4 is a time chart of the water feeding operation of the endoscope device. FIG. 5 is a time chart of the suction operation of the endoscope apparatus. FIG. 6 is a time chart of forward water feeding operation of the endoscope apparatus. FIG. 7 is a time chart of the remove operation of the endoscope device. FIG. 8 is a time chart of a simple remove operation of the endoscope apparatus. FIG. 9 is a time chart of the drainage operation of the endoscope device. 1 ... Endoscope, 2 ... Endoscope control device, 7 ... Nozzle,
17 …… Monitor, 18 …… Air passage, 19 …… Water passage, 23 ……
Water tank, 24 ... Air / water control circuit, 25 ... Suction path,
31 …… Suction control circuit, 33 …… Front water channel, 34 …… Front water tank, 35 …… Front water control circuit, 36 …… Central control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An endoscope in which an observation window and a solid-state image sensor are provided, and pipes for air supply, water supply, suction, etc. are provided; and an electric signal from the solid-state image sensor is processed to monitor a visual field image. Signal processing means to display on the air supply, water supply,
An endoscope control device provided with a conduit control means for controlling a conduit function such as suction, wherein the conduit control means performs a predetermined conduit cleaning operation and the monitor An endoscope apparatus comprising: a conduit cleaning control means for displaying a comment on the conduit cleaning.