JPS63249539A - Endoscope - 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 [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an internal folding device in which a bending tube portion of an insertion portion is forcibly bent by pushing and pulling an operating wire.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, a bending tube section in an insertion section of an endoscope is forcibly bent by pushing and pulling an operating wire inserted through the insertion section through a wire pulling operation mechanism in a hand operation section.

As shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-66723, the operating wire is guided within the flexible tube section of the insertion section by a wire guide formed in a coil shape.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, the above-mentioned wire guide tends to buckle when used with an endoscope. In particular, those that are oriented for large cleansing or those that are frequently bent are susceptible to buckling as shown in Figure 4 due to the compressing force they receive. When this wire guide buckles, the operation wire is prevented from moving forward and backward, and as a result, the amount of rotational force required to operate the bending operation knob that drives the wire push/pull mechanism 1a becomes heavy, impairing operability.

In addition, it is possible to increase the clearance between the wire guide and the operating wire, but in this method, the outer diameter of the wire guide becomes too narrow, so the space inside the insertion tube is narrowed, and the outer diameter of the insertion tube is narrower. Inconveniences arise, such as the need to increase the size.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to avoid increasing the outer diameter of the insertion section or narrowing the space within the insertion section as much as possible, while still allowing operation even when the wire guide is buckled. It is an object of the present invention to provide an endoscope in which the advance and retreat of a wire is not obstructed.

[Means and effects for solving the problems] The present invention provides a clearance between the operating wire for bending the bending tube portion of the insertion section and the wire guide for guiding the wire through the insertion portion, which is at least 2 λ class, to prevent buckling. The clearance on the side where buckling is more likely to occur is set larger than the clearance on the side where buckling is less likely to occur.

Therefore, even if the wire guide on the side that is more likely to buckle buckles, the operation wire that is inserted through this wire guide will not be hindered from moving forward or backward. Furthermore, since there is no need to increase the clearance for all wire guides, there is no need to increase the thickness of all wire guides.

[Disaster relief?]

1 to 3 show one embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 in FIG. 1 indicates a general-purpose endoscope for the upper gastrointestinal tract. A connector 5 for connecting to a light source device (not shown) is provided at the tip of the universal cord 4. The insertion section 2 is connected to the groove bottom by a flexible tube section 6 on the proximal side, a curved tube section 7 connected to the distal end of the flexible tube section 6, and a distal end component section 8 connected to the distal end of the curved tube section 7. has been done. This tip component 8 is provided with an objective lens 9, an illumination window (not shown), and the like. An image guide 11 is optically connected to the objective lens 9, and the image guide 11 is guided through the insertion section 2 to the operation section 3 and connected to the eyepiece section 12. Further, the light guide 13 connected to the illumination window reaches into the light guide tube 14 of the connector 5 through the insertion section 2, the operating section 3, and the universal cord 4'4. In addition, as shown in FIG.
16 etc. are interpolated.

As shown in FIG. 1, the bending tube part 2 of the insertion part 2 has a plurality of bending pieces 17 arranged in the axial direction and connected to each other so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction. covered with

Further, the shape of the bending piece 17 is different between the upward side and the downward side9, and the bending angle is 210° upward.

It is angled downward at 90 degrees. The tabs are designed to be able to bend more when facing upward.

Furthermore, a pair of upper and lower bending operation wires 21 and 22 are connected to the most advanced bending piece 17.

That is, the operating wires 22.2 are attached to the upper and lower ends of the bending piece 17.
Attachment portions 23 and 24 are provided for connecting the tips of the two. Further, the upper and lower operating wires 21 and 22 are inserted into the upper and lower inner cavities of the insertion section 2, and in the bending tube section 7, guide rings 25..., 2 formed on the bending pieces 17...
6..., and within the flexible tube section 6 are guided by wire guides 27 and 28, which will be described later. And 1. This operating wire 21.
The base end of 220 is a wire pulling operation mechanism 29 provided in the operation section 3.
It is connected to

This wire pulling operation mechanism 29 consists of a pinion 31 and a pair of racks 32, 33 provided so as to sandwich the pinion 3, and each of the operation wires 21, 22' (connected to the racks 32, 33). Further, a bending operation knob (not shown) is attached to rotation #i34 of the pinion 31.

On the other hand, the operating wire 21 is inside the flexible tube section 6 of the insertion section 2.
．． The wire guides 27 and 28 that guide 22f have a circular cross-sectional shape as shown in FIG. Operation wire 2 J
t 22f is inserted. In addition, each wire guide 27
, 28 are respectively disposed on the upper and lower inner surfaces of the flexible tube section 6, and their distal and rear ends are fixedly attached to the distal and rear end portions of the flexible tube section 6, respectively. Additionally, the clearances for each wire guide 27, 28 are different, and in this embodiment the wire guide 27 on the upward side
The wire guide 28 is set larger than that of the wire guide 28 on the downward side. That is, the operating wires 21 and 22 on the upward and downward sides have the same outer diameter of 0.62 m, and the metal wires 36 of each wire guide 27 and 28 have the same diameter of 0.3 m. However, the inner diameter of the coil is leveled. That is, the inner diameter e of the wire guide 27 on the upward side is 0.85 m, and the inner diameter of the wire guide 28 on the downward side is 0.7 ms. therefore,
The clearance in the upward wire guide 27 is 0.
．． 23 m, and the clearance at the lower wire guide 28 is 0.08 mm.

As mentioned above, in the endoscope, the curved tube portion 7 has a curve angle of 2100 on the upward side and 90 on the downward side.
large compared to °. Furthermore, since this endoscope 1 is used in the upper gastrointestinal tract, it is frequently bent largely toward the upward side. If this kind of use is repeated, the compressive force applied to the upward wire guide 27, which is frequently used for traction, is large, and this may cause buckling.
obtain.

However, since the clearance in the upward wire guide 27 is tight, even if it buckles, the movement of the operating wire 21 is not hindered. therefore,
There is no need to make the operation of the operation knob difficult.

Furthermore, even if buckling occurs, the movement of the operating wire 21 is not hindered, and therefore, no more than necessary tension is applied to the operating wire 21. Therefore, the operating wire 21 will not stretch and the bending angle will not decrease. On the other hand, the clearance for the downward wire guide 28 is set to normal,
In order to prevent the diameter of the wire guide 28 from increasing, the space inside the insertion section 2 is not narrowed, and the insertion section 2
A smaller diameter can be ensured.

It should be noted that in the case of general-purpose endoscopes for the upper gastrointestinal tract that can also be bent in the left and right directions, the bending angle in the left and right directions is similar to that on the downward side, and is used less frequently. therefore,
Only the clearance for the wire guide on the upward facing side needs to be made larger than for the other wire guides.

In addition, the curvature angle of a colon endoscope in the vertical direction is larger than that in the lateral direction, and its use is high.

In the duodenal endoscope used for ERCP, the downward and leftward bending angles are the same, and the upward bending angle is smaller than the rightward bending angle, but the upward bending angle is larger. , and compared to this, downward and left facing are significantly less frequently used. Therefore, in the colonoscope, the wire guide clearance is set to be the same for the upward and downward wire guides, and to be larger than the clearance for the left and right wire guides. Also, the clearance for the left and right wire guides should be the same. For duodenal endoscopes, the wire guide on the upward side has the largest clearance, followed by the wire guide on the right side, and compared to this, the wire guides on the downward and counterclockwise sides have the highest clearance. It is small and has the same clearance on the downward and left facing sides. As described above, the magnitude and frequency of curvature vary depending on the model of the endoscope, but it is set carefully by adjusting the clearance eJ of the wire guide on the side that is more likely to buckle.

Note that buckling can also be prevented by increasing only the wire diameter of the wire guide on the side that is more likely to buckle, without increasing the thickness of the insertion portion 2. In addition, since the operating wire on the side that is prone to buckling is easily stretched, only this operating wire may be made thicker to give it strength.Also, a heat-shrinkable tube may be used in the middle free part of the wire guide. It is also possible to prevent buckling as much as possible by covering it with

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, since the clearance is increased only in the wire guide on the side where buckling is more likely to occur, even if this wire guide buckles, the movement of the operation wire is not hindered, and the amount of bending operation force is increased. This can prevent the operation wire from elongating. Furthermore, since the clearance in other wire guides is not increased, it is possible to ensure a reduction in the diameter of this wire guide. therefore,
The space within the insertion section can be widened, and the diameter of the insertion section can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a side sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention when viewed from inside, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in Fig. 1, and Figs. It is a sectional view of a state where it is inserted. ! ... Endoscopy, 2... Kamiiri section, 7... Curved pipe section,
21° 22... Operation wire, 27,211... Wire guide, 29... Wire pulling operation mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an endoscope in which a plurality of wire guides made of coils are disposed within the insertion section, and a bending tube section of the insertion section can be forcibly bent by pushing and pulling an operating wire inserted through each of the wire guides. An endoscope, characterized in that there are at least two types of clearances between each of the wire guides and the operating wire, and the clearance on the side that is more likely to buckle is set larger than the clearance on the side that is less likely to buckle.