JPS58138431A - Production of hard optical viewing pipe for joint mirror - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a rigid optical viewing tube for an arthroscope, and more particularly to an improvement in the method for manufacturing a rigid needle-like tube for use in a surgical arthroscope.

Arthroscopy is a type of endoscope, but its development lagged behind that of poukola mirrors and gastroscopes. The biggest reason for this is that even in the case of the knee joint, which has the widest joint cavity of all the joints in the human body, the interior cavity is much narrower than that of the knee joint or stomach joint.

The present inventor has been engaged in research on arthroscopy for many years, and in 1960 developed the Watanabe type arthroscope No. 21 (diameter 5.911 m) and its usage, and put arthroscopy of the knee joint into practical use. Furthermore, in 1970, he developed arthroscope No. 24 (diameter +7 mm), which made it possible to perform arthroscopy on various joints other than the knee.

These arthroscopes utilize a needle-like rigid tube developed for laser beam transmission. This needle-like rigid tube (trade name "Selfoc" manufactured by Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd.) is made by applying ion exchange treatment to a glass microtube with a diameter of about 1 inch. It has a refractive index characteristic that decreases according to the parabolic equation of the distance. When one end is placed to face the object, the incident light travels along the center in a sine curve pattern, and images are repeatedly formed alternately at regular intervals (approximately 40 degrees). and reaches the other end. Therefore, it can be used as an optical viewing tube if it is cut at the point where it connects.

On the other hand, with advances in arthroscopy, arthroscopy has come to be used not only for diagnosis but also for treatment. That is, various joint surgeries that were conventionally performed by making an incision into the joint are now being performed arthroscopically by inserting thin, precise instruments (surgical tools such as forceps) into the joint cavity.

This arthroscopic surgery requires only 1 to 2 days of post-operative hospitalization, whereas meniscectomy conventionally requires about 6 weeks of post-operative hospitalization, and the post-treatment period is greatly shortened. As a result, it has now become a kind of worldwide boom.

There are various methods for the above-mentioned arthroscopic surgery, but the most convenient method is to use a surgical arthroscope because it is most convenient for the instrument to reach the target within the field of view of the arthroscope.

By the way, the target image of the joint cavity obtained with an arthroscope can be displayed on a television or screen, but basically it is better if the surgeon can see it directly! Delicious. An overview of the structure of the surgical arthroscope in this case: The surgeon inserts the arthroscope and the distal end of the instrument into the joint cavity. It consists of an eyepiece tube part for the purpose of operation, and an instrument local part from which the operating rod of the instrument protrudes.The operator, while eyeing the end of the eyepiece tube part, operates the instrument protruding from the end of the instrument tube part. The operating rod is operated by hand.Therefore, in order to perform eyepiece and manual operation simultaneously and smoothly, it is necessary that the end of the eyepiece tube and the end of the instrument's private part overlap to some extent.

For this reason, surgical arthroscopes usually have a structure as shown in the accompanying drawings.

That is, the insertion cylinder part 1 and the instrument cylinder part 2 form a substantially linear shape to accommodate the instrument M, and the ocular cylinder part 3 is diagonally branched from the insertion cylinder part 1. The rigid optical viewing tube 4 is surrounded by an illumination glass fiber 6 within the insertion tube 1, and
It is curved at the above-mentioned branch point and faces the lens system 7 within the eye tube section 6 .

Therefore, the rigid optical viewing tube 4 needs to have a curved part in the middle. However, when a rigid acicular tube that has been subjected to ion exchange treatment as described above to give the specified refractive index characteristics is used as an optical viewing tube, if it is bent after manufacturing, the curved portion will have the above-mentioned characteristics. The refractive index properties are disturbed, resulting in a disturbance of the light transmission pattern, which significantly deteriorates the quality of the resulting image. That is, it is practically impossible to curve the acicular rigid tube in the middle and make it extend across the insertion tube part 1 and the eye tube part 2 from the viewpoint of the imaging effect.

Therefore, conventionally, in this type of apparatus, a lens/mirror system is incorporated inside the insertion tube 1 and the eye tube 2 to bend and transmit light from the target.

However, when the lens/mirror system is incorporated in this way, the diameter of the insertion tube 1 becomes 7 to 8+o+, and with this thickness, it is impossible to insert it into the inner cavity of a knee joint, for example. In other words, the surgical targets are inevitably limited.

In view of these circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a rigid needle tube that can constitute a surgical arthroscope suitable for any type of arthroscopic hip surgery.

R11 In this invention, a glass microtube with a diameter of about 1 inch is first formed with a predetermined curved part tied according to the arthroscope, and then ion exchange treatment is performed on this. The gist is to provide the specified refractive index characteristics by applying

In the ion exchange treatment, for example, the concentration of the ion exchange solution may be adjusted to be different between the convex side and the concave side of the curved portion. That is, the refractive index characteristics of the glass microtube after being bent are investigated, and according to the investigation results, the ion is adjusted such that the refractive index at the curved part is maximum at the central axis and decreases as it moves away from the center axis according to the parabolic equation of distance. Control the concentration distribution in the exchange bath.

According to the method of the present invention, even if distortion occurs in the refractive index characteristics due to the initial curvature, since the ion exchange treatment is performed in a controlled manner to cancel out the distortion, the refractive index characteristics of the curved portion become There is no difference at all from other parts.Therefore, the light transmitted in the acicular polar a tube obtained in this way also corresponds to the
Since the transmission pattern is not disturbed by the curved portion, the quality of the image formation will not deteriorate. In other words, ＼
An arthroscope using a rigid needle-like tube can be used for any surgical target.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Is the diagram a surgical arthroscope? FIG. 1... Insertion tube part 2... Eyepiece tube part 3... Instrument surface part 4... Rigid optical viewing tube 6... Fiberglass for illumination 7... Eyepiece lens system patent applicant Tadashi Watanabe Takeshi Patent Application Agent Patent Attorney Kazuhara Sugawara

Claims (1)

[Claims] A straight eye 1lj having a predetermined curved portion according to the shape of the arthroscope.
A glass ultrathin tube is formed before and after la+, and it is subjected to ion exchange treatment tm to give it a refractive index characteristic that is maximum at the central axis and decreases as it moves away from the central axis according to the parabolic equation of the distance. Characteristic manufacturing method for rigid optical viewing tubes for arthroscopy.