JPS6359333B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an endoscope duct cleaning method for cleaning various ducts built into an endoscope.

Generally, an endoscope includes a conduit for supplying air and water. Therefore, when cleaning a used endoscope, it is necessary to clean not only the outer surface of the endoscope but also the inside of each duct. The cleaning referred to here refers to washing with water to remove contamination inside the pipes, disinfection using a chemical solution after washing with water, and washing with water after disinfection. Usually, cleaning is performed in the above order. It is. By the way, conventionally, in the method of cleaning the inside of each pipe, it is necessary to connect a cleaning liquid injection tube to the mouthpiece of each pipe, and to operate the on-off valve of each pipe to open it. be. In other words, it is necessary to individually connect a cleaning liquid injection tube to each conduit and to switch each on-off valve, making the cleaning operation complicated and troublesome. Furthermore, according to the above conventional cleaning method,
In particular, there was a serious drawback that cleaning of the details of the valve body of the on-off valve and the portion covered by the valve body of the cylinder was likely to be incomplete.

Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, cleaning liquid is supplied from an air/liquid cylinder installed in the operation section of the endoscope, and the liquid is sent to each pipe line to clean the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder and the inner surface of the cylinder. It has been considered to clean the surrounding surfaces at the same time. That is, the on-off valve inserted into the air/liquid feeding cylinder is removed, and the adapter is attached to the opened cylinder. Then, connect the liquid feeding tube connected to this adapter to a liquid feeding pump, supply the liquid from this liquid feeding pump to the above cylinder via the adapter, and send liquid from this cylinder to the liquid feeding pipe line and the air feeding pipe line. The liquid is then flowed out from the nozzle at the distal end of the endoscope and the air supply port and liquid supply port of the connector section for cleaning.

However, each duct of an endoscope has a different inner diameter. Specifically, in general, the air supply pipe and the liquid supply pipe are configured such that the pipe on the insertion section side of the endoscope is thin, and the pipe on the light guide cable side is thick.
Therefore, even if the liquid is sent from the cylinder that connects these pipes, the flow will be concentrated in the pipes with low flow resistance, and the cleaning liquid will not flow sufficiently into the pipes with high flow resistance. In other words, there is a drawback that all the pipes cannot be reliably cleaned.

The present invention has been made focusing on the above circumstances,
The purpose is to provide a cleaning method for endoscope conduits that is easy to connect to each conduit of the endoscope, and that can reliably clean each conduit and the inside of the on-off valve cylinder. It's about doing.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

1 in FIG. 1 is an endoscope, and this endoscope 1 includes an insertion section 2, an operation section 3, and a light guide cable 4.
It is composed of. Inside the endoscope 1, various ducts are incorporated as will be described later.
First, an air supply conduit 5 and a liquid supply conduit 6 are inserted and arranged across the insertion section 2, the insertion section 3, and the light guide cable 4. The ends of the air supply pipe line 5 and the liquid supply pipe line 6 merge and are connected to the air and liquid supply nozzle 7 provided at the distal end of the insertion section 2.
is provided toward the outer surface of an observation window (not shown), and is adapted to spray cleaning liquid and air toward the outer surface of the observation window. A connector section 9 is provided at the extending end of the light guide cable 4, and the connector section 9 has first and second air supply ports 10, 1 which communicate with the air supply pipe line 5.
1. A liquid feeding port body 12 communicating with the liquid feeding pipe line 6 is provided. The first air supply port body 10 connects the connector portion 9 to a light source device (not shown).
When attached to the light source device, it is connected to the air pump inside the light source device. Further, the second air supply port body 11 and the liquid supply port body 12 are each connected to a liquid supply connector (not shown).

Further, the operating section 3 is provided with a sub-liquid feeding port body 16. This sub-liquid feeding port body 16 communicates with the liquid feeding pipe line 6 via a check valve 16a. A midway portion of the air supply pipe 5 and the liquid supply pipe 6 is connected to a cylinder 20 for an air/liquid supply opening/closing valve in the operation section 3 . The cylinder 20 for the air/liquid supply on-off valve has a cylindrical shape with a bottom, and a flange 24 is integrally provided at the opening edge thereof. Further, a stopper 25 is attached to the cylinder 20 for the air/liquid supply on/off valve, and the open end of the cylinder 20 is closed. An engagement groove 26 that engages with the flange 24 is provided on the inner peripheral surface of the plug body 25.
is engraved so that the stopper 25 will not come off even if the pressure inside the cylinder 20 increases. Note that a piston (not shown) is normally inserted into the cylinder 20, and by operating this piston, the upstream pipe sections 5a, 6a and the downstream pipe sections 5b, 6b of each pipe line 5, 6 are connected. However, when attaching the stopper 25, the piston must be removed first.

On the other hand, the first air supply port body 10 of the connector section 9
One end of the liquid feeding tube 27 is connected to. The other end of the liquid feeding tube 27 is hermetically inserted into a liquid tank 28 containing liquid L, and its end is immersed in liquid L. In addition, the liquid tank 28
One end of a pressurizing tube 29 is hermetically connected to the pressurizing tube 29 . One end of this pressure tube 29 opens into the upper space of the liquid tank 28, and the other end is connected to an air pump 30. Therefore, when the air supply pump 30 is operated to pressurize the inside of the liquid tank 28, the liquid L is sent out from the liquid supply tube 27. Further, the second air outlet body 1
1 and the liquid feeding port body 12 are connected to the cap 3 as shown in FIG.
It opens at 1. A connection port body 32 made of an elastic material such as rubber is attached to this cap 31, and the second air supply port body 11 and liquid supply port body 12 are connected to each other through the internal space of this connection port body 32. is communicated.

Next, cleaning of each channel of the endoscope 1 will be explained. First, as shown in FIG. 1, the stopper 25 is attached to the cylinder 20 for the air and liquid supply valve, and the liquid supply tube 27 is connected to the first air supply port body 10 of the connector section 9. The connection port body 32 is attached to the second air supply port body 11 and the liquid supply port body 12 to communicate with each other. When the air supply pump 30 is operated in this state, the inside of the liquid tank 28 is pressurized by the air from the air supply pump 30, so that the liquid L is transferred from the liquid supply tube 27 to the upstream side pipe of the air supply pipe line 5. Road part 5
sent to a. A part of the liquid L sent here passes through the connection port body 32 and also flows into the upstream pipe section 6a of the liquid sending pipe line 6. The liquid L fed into each upstream pipe section 5a, 6a flows into the air/liquid supply on/off valve cylinder 20, cleans the inside thereof, and then passes through the downstream pipe section 5b, 6b. It flows out from the nozzle 7.

Therefore, the entire length of all the pipe lines 5 and 6 and the inside of the air/liquid supply on/off valve cylinder 20 are cleaned by the flow of the liquid L. Also, the liquid L is supplied to the nozzle 7.
Since the flow flows in the direction of outflow from the nozzle 7, the dirt adhering to the nozzle 7 can be reliably discharged to the outside.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the downstream side pipe sections 5b and 6b of the air supply pipe line 5 and the liquid supply pipe line 6 were merged to communicate with one nozzle 7, but two A nozzle 7 is provided, and each downstream pipe section 5
It is also possible to have a structure in which the nozzles b and 6b are communicated with the nozzle 7 separately.

Further, the liquid in the above embodiments is water or a chemical solution, and when a chemical solution is used, it is generally called disinfection, but the cleaning referred to here includes so-called washing with water and disinfection.

Further, the means for sending liquid to the air supply port bodies 10 and 11 and the liquid supply port body 12 may be replaced by other means instead of the air supply pump 30.
For example, it may be carried out using a so-called syringe in which a piston is inserted into a syringe.

As explained above, in the present invention, the cylinder for the air/liquid feeding on/off valve is closed, and the liquid is fed from the air feeding port body in a state where the air feeding port body and the liquid feeding port body of the connector portion are communicated with each other. It was made to flow out from the nozzle of the insertion part. Therefore, the entire length of the air supply pipe and liquid supply pipe and the inside of the cylinder can be reliably cleaned at once by such a flow of liquid. Also,
The liquid is forcibly fed through the connector part of each conduit and flows out from the tip of the insertion tube, so even if the inner diameter of each conduit is different between the insertion tube side and the light guide cable side, the total length of each conduit can be cleaned reliably. In addition, since the liquid flows in the direction of outflow from the nozzle, dirt adhering to the nozzle can be reliably discharged, and furthermore, no special operation is required when feeding the liquid, resulting in excellent workability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the overall configuration during cleaning, showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the connector section. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Endoscope, 3...Operation unit, 5...Air supply pipe line, 6...Liquid supply pipe line, 7...Nozzle, 9...Connector part, 10, 11...Air supply port body, 12 ...Liquid feeding port body, 20...Cylinder for air and liquid feeding opening/closing valve, 25
...Plug body, 27...Liquid feeding tube, 28...Liquid tank, 29...Air feeding pump.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An air/liquid supply opening/closing valve cylinder to which the air supply pipe and liquid supply pipe are connected is provided in the operation section of the endoscope equipped with the air supply pipe and the liquid supply pipe, and the endoscope A nozzle communicating with the air supply conduit and the liquid supply conduit is provided at the distal end of the insertion section, and an air supply port body communicating with the air supply conduit is provided at the connector part of the light guide cable connected to the operation section. and a liquid feeding port body communicating with the liquid feeding pipe line, in which the air/liquid feeding opening/closing valve cylinder is closed, and the air feeding port body communicates with the liquid feeding pipe line. A method for cleaning an endoscope conduit, characterized in that the liquid is sent from the air supply port body and flows out from the nozzle while the liquid supply port body is in communication with the liquid supply port body.