JPH04291312A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the breakage of a light guide fiber in a light guide connector at the time of the attachment or detachment of the light guide connector while maintaining simple structure as the connector. CONSTITUTION:While a light guide fiber bundle 23 is extended from the rear end of a flexible light guide cord 17 to form a hard part, a ferrule pipe 36 is fitted to cover the hard part from the rear end to a front halfway point. This ferrule pipe 36 covers the light guide fiber bundle 23 at least beyond said hard part and the tip side of the connector pipe 37 is fitted loosely between the inner periphery of the light guide chord 17 and the outer periphery of the light guide fiber bundle 23, covered with a heat-shrinkable tube 38 having an adhesive on its internal surface, and adhered and fixed. Further, this heat- shrinkable tube 38 is covered with a heat-shrinkable tube 39 made of silicone, etc.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope having an improved light guide connector at the input end of a light guide fiber.

0002

[Prior Art] In recent years, by inserting an elongated insertion section into a narrow diameter part of a blood vessel or ureter, various therapeutic procedures can be performed using a treatment instrument inserted into a treatment instrument channel for observation and as needed. Catheter-type endoscopes are widely used.

In a catheter-type endoscope as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-43513, the light guide connector 1 on the light guide fiber input end side is as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. There is. That is, the base pipe 2 is filled with light guide fibers 3 at a high density, and furthermore, in order to prevent the end face of the light guide fiber from overheating due to illumination light from a light source device (not shown), the base pipe 2 is designed to absorb heat conducted to the light guide fiber 3. A heat conducting member or a heat dissipating member (adhesive) 4 is filled in the gap between the light guide fibers 3 so that the heat can escape to the base pipe 2. The other end of the base pipe 2 is fixed to the light guide fiber 3 by an adhesive 5. This means that the light guide fiber 3 is connected to the base pipe 2 during assembly.
This is to prevent it from falling off. Further, the distal end of the cap pipe 2 is covered with and adhered to the distal end side of the outer skin tube 6, and the distal end of the outer skin tube 6 is further covered with a bend preventing tube 7.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example, the light guide fiber inside the outer skin tube is
It consists of a flexible part and a hard part that is hardened with adhesive. Therefore, if the outer skin tube is bent during the operation of attaching and detaching the light guide connector to and from the light source device, bending stress will concentrate on the hard part of the light guide fiber, causing the light guide fiber to break. There was a problem with this.

The present invention has been made in view of these circumstances, and while maintaining a simple structure as a connector, it is possible to prevent the light guide fiber inside the light guide connector from breaking when the light guide connector is attached or detached. and then
The purpose is to provide an endoscope that can always send bright illumination light into the body.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, an endoscope according to the present invention includes a flexible light guide fiber bundle having a hard part at one end, and a flexible light guide fiber bundle having a hard part at one end, and a flexible light guide fiber bundle having a hard part at one end. A base pipe, a connector pipe provided on the outer periphery of the base pipe and having one end extending to the flexible portion of the light guide fiber bundle, and a light guide covering the light guide fiber bundle and having one end extending to the outer periphery of the connector pipe. Comes with a cord.

[0007]

[Operation] In an endoscope with this configuration, even if the flexible tube is bent near the connector when it is attached to or detached from the light source device, no bending stress is applied to the hard part of the light guide fiber, so the light inside the connector The guide fiber will not break.

[0008]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 to 6 relate to one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a light guide connector, FIG. 2 is an overall schematic view of a catheter type endoscope, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the distal end of an insertion section.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the first branch, FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the second branch, and FIG. 6 is a comparative sectional view of the light guide connector.

As shown in FIG. 2, the catheter type endoscope 9 includes an elongated insertion section 10 that is inserted into a living body lumen from the distal end side, and a first branch section 11 provided at the base side of this insertion section 10. ,
Channel tube 12 divided at this first branch part 11
and a light guide having a universal cord 13, a second branch 14 provided on the base side of the universal cord 13, an image guide cord 15 having an image guide connector 16 separated at the second branch 14, and a light guide connector 18. It is composed of code 17.

[0010] The channel tube 12 has a channel opening 19 through which various treatment tools are inserted so that water supply, suction, treatment, etc. can be carried out. The image guide connector 16 provided at the end of the image guide cord 15 is connected to a camera control unit (not shown) for viewing on a monitor by the surgeon, while the end of the light guide cord 17 is A light guide connector 18 provided at the insertion section is connected to a light source device (not shown) for illuminating the front of the distal end of the insertion section.

The distal end of the insertion portion will now be explained with reference to FIG. The insertion section 10 is made of, for example, a flexible resin multi-lumen tube 20, which is relatively large in the axial direction.
For example, it has a crescent-shaped mounting hole 21 and a channel hole 24, and an image guide fiber bundle 22 having an objective optical system 22a on the distal end side is arranged in the central axis direction of the mounting hole 21, This image guide fiber bundle 2
Light guide fiber bundles 23, 23 for illuminating the inside of the living body lumen are arranged in the device holes 21 located on both sides of the body lumen. The image guide fiber bundle 22 and the light guide fiber bundles 23, 23 in the mounting hole 21 are held by being filled with flexible resin.

Next, the first branch portion 11 will be explained with reference to FIG. The first branch part 11 is connected to a channel hole 24 in the multi-lumen tube 20 that constitutes the insertion part 10.
The rear side of the tube extends into a tube shape, and the channel tube 12 is connected to the end of the tube through a connecting pipe 25 that is watertightly connected. In addition, the mounting hole 21 of the multi-lumen tube 20 is connected to the channel hole 2.
The image guide fiber bundle 22 and the light guide fiber bundle 23 are opened at the front part of the tubular part 4, and are expanded by the tubes around the channel hole that expand when the connecting pipe 25 is press-fitted into the multi-lumen tube 20.
is not under pressure. The image guide fiber bundle 22 and the light guide fiber bundle 23 that have been inserted through the mounting hole 21 are then inserted into the universal cord 13.

The connecting pipe 25 connects the channel hole 24 of the multi-lumen tube 20 and the channel tube 1.
2 are press-fitted, both tubes surrounding the connecting pipe 25 expand due to the press-fitting. In order to prevent the exposed parts of the image guide fiber bundle 22 and the light guide fiber bundle 23 from being directly compressed by the expansion by this tube, the exposed end 26 at the tip of the universal cord 13 is connected to the multi-lumen tube 20 which is expanded by press-fitting the connecting pipe. It is located closer to the insertion portion 10 than the side end portion 27 . This prevents the fiber from breaking due to expansion of the tube due to the press-fitting of the connecting pipe 25.

Furthermore, in order to prevent the exposed portions of the image guide fiber bundle 22 and the light guide fiber bundle 23 from being directly compressed due to the expansion of the tube, the distal end portion 26 of the universal cord 13 has a multi-lumen structure that is expanded by press-fitting the connecting pipe 25. By being located closer to the insertion section 10 than the end 27 on the tube 20 side, the first branch section 1
Even if bending stress is applied to the connecting pipe 25 and the connecting pipe 25 is bent, the connecting pipe 25 is prevented from bending by the universal cord 13, so the image guide fiber bundle 22 and the light guide fiber bundle 23 in the universal cord 13 are , it will not break due to pressure due to the bending of the connecting pipe 25.

The first branching section 11 extends over the protective tube 3 in a range beyond the exposed fiber end 28 of the multi-lumen tube 20 and the expanded end 29 of the channel tube 12 expanded by press-fitting the connecting pipe 25.
0, and this protective tube 30 is covered with
The multi-lumen tube 20, the channel tube 12, and the universal cord 13 are covered and bonded to both ends of the protective tube 30 by a heat-shrinkable tube 31 having a heat-fusible adhesive applied to the inner peripheral surface. Therefore, by using this heat shrink tube 31, the multi-lumen tube 2
0 and the channel tube 12 and between the multi-lumen tube 20 and the universal cord 13, the protective tube 30 prevents the heat-fusible adhesive from getting entangled with the internal organs, and the heat-shrinkable tube 31 does not put pressure on internal organs. Note that the protective tube 30
Use a material with a high softening point such as PTFE,
The heat-shrinkable tube 31 is made of a material such as polyolefin that shrinks at a sufficiently lower softening point than that of the protective tube 30.

Furthermore, this heat-shrinkable tube 31 has a highly flexible heat-shrinkable tube 32 made of silicone or the like that extends over both ends of the heat-shrinkable tube 31 and covers the multi-lumen tube 20, channel tube 12, and universal cord 13. ing. Therefore, the heat-shrinkable tube 32 prevents buckling due to bending stress from the heat-shrinkable tube 31 to the multi-lumen tube 20 and from the heat-shrinkable tube 31 to the universal cord 13 and channel tube 12.

Next, the second branch portion 14 will be explained with reference to FIG. The second branch section 14 branches the universal cord 13 extending from the first branch section 11 into an image guide cord 15 and a light guide cord 17. In the second branch part 14, when the image guide fiber 22 and the light guide fiber 23 in the universal cord 13 are inserted into the image guide cord 15 and the light guide cord 17, each fiber bundle is exposed in the same way as in the first branch part 11. ing. The protective tube 33 covers the exposed portion of the fibers between the universal cord 13, the image guide cord 15, and the light guide cord 17.
The protective tube 33 covers the image guide cord 15 and the light guide cord 17 in a cantilevered manner, covering the area beyond the exposed fiber portion of each cord.
The universal cord 13, the image guide cord 15, and the light guide cord 17 are covered and bonded to both ends of the protective tube 33 by a heat-shrinkable tube 34 having an inner peripheral surface coated with a heat-fusible adhesive. Therefore, when the protective tube 33 covers and adheres between the universal cord 13 and the image guide cord 15 and between the universal cord 13 and the light guide cord 17 with the heat shrink tube 34, the heat-fusible adhesive This prevents the agent from getting entangled with the internal organs and the heat shrink tube 34 from compressing the internal organs. As with the first branch 11, the protective tube 33 is made of a material with a high softening point, such as PTFE, and the heat-shrinkable tube 34 is made of a material with a softening point much higher than that of the protective tube 33, such as polyolefin. Use materials that shrink at low temperatures.

Furthermore, this heat shrink tube 34 is connected to the universal cord 13, the image guide cord 15, and the light guide cord 17 by a highly flexible heat shrink tube 35 made of silicone or the like, which extends over both ends of the heat shrink tube 34.
is covered. Therefore, this heat shrink tube 35 is connected from the heat shrink tube 34 to the universal cord 13 and from the heat shrink tube 34 to the image guide cord 15.
This prevents buckling due to bending stress applied to the light guide cord 17 and the light guide cord 17.

Next, the light guide connector 18 will be explained with reference to FIG. This light guide connector 18 extends a light guide fiber bundle 23 from the rear end of the flexible light guide cord 17, and connects the end side of the extended light guide fiber bundle 23 to a light source device (not shown). In order to prevent the end face of the light guide fiber from overheating due to the illumination light from the light guide fiber 23, a heat conductive member or a heat dissipating member (not shown) is filled into the gap of the light guide fiber 23 to form a hard part. A cap pipe 36 is fitted and covered from the rear end to the middle of the front. At the other end of the base pipe 36, the boundary with the light guide fiber bundle 23 is fixed with an adhesive 40. This is to prevent the light guide fiber bundle 23 from falling out of the base pipe 36 during assembly. This cap pipe 36 is covered by a connector pipe 37 at least to a position beyond the hard part of the light guide fiber bundle 23, and the tip side of the connector pipe 37 is connected to the inner circumference of the light guide cord 17 and the light guide fiber bundle 23. It is loosely fitted between the outer periphery. Then, the connector, the pipe 33 and the light guide cord 17
The connection portion with the tube is covered with a heat-shrinkable tube 38 having a heat-fusible adhesive applied to the inner circumferential surface and fixed by adhesive. The symbols β and γ in the figure are the required lengths as adhesive allowances for adhesive fixation. Furthermore, this heat-shrinkable tube 38 is covered from the connector pipe 37 to the light guide cord 17 with a highly flexible heat-shrinkable tube 39 made of silicone, etc.
7 buckling is prevented. Further, the area between the end of the connector pipe 37 and the end of the heat shrink tube 39 is formed as a control unit insertion section. Code α in the figure
is the control unit insertion length.

Furthermore, when assembling the endoscope as described above, the lengths of the built-in image guide fiber bundle 22 and light guide fiber bundle 23 are set so that they fit inside the endoscope. Since the lengths of the multi-lumen tube 20, the universal cord 13, the image guide cord 15, and the light guide cord 17 vary from member to member, conventionally, the length α of the control unit insertion portion differs from product to product. However, in this embodiment, by moving the position of the heat shrink tube 39, the connector insertion section α can be made to have an arbitrary length. FIG. 6 shows an example in which the insertion length α is varied with respect to FIG. 1.

By the way, this light guide connector 18
In this case, the light guide cord 17 is bent as the light source device is attached to and detached from the light source device. At this time, since only the soft portion of the light guide fiber bundle 23 is located inside the light guide cord 17, the light guide fiber bundle 23 bends and follows the bending of the light guide cord 17, so that it does not break. In addition to being a flexible part, the inner diameter of the connector pipe 37 is larger than the inner diameter of the base pipe 36, so that the filling rate of the light guide fibers 23 is lowered, and the flexibility is further increased.

FIGS. 7 to 9 are configuration examples showing the distal end portion of an image guide in a catheter type endoscope. FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the objective optical system at the distal end of the image guide of the insertion section 10. The image guide fiber bundle 22 is made up of several thousand to tens of thousands of wires with a cladding arranged around the core, and a jacket glass 50 and a resin primary coat 51 are sequentially laminated on the effective pixel part for image transmission. This is a conduit-type image fiber made of The image guide fiber bundle 22 has its tip end polished and
The primary coat 51 at the tip is peeled off and bonded to an objective lens (heterogeneous medium lens) 52. Since the primary coat 51 is made of resin, it can be easily scraped off with a blade such as a cutter, and the jacket glass 50
It can be easily removed by wiping it off with a solvent that does not affect other surfaces.

The objective lens 52 and a portion of the distal end of the image guide fiber bundle 22 are inserted into a lens frame 53 and fixed with an adhesive 54.

The peeled portion of the primary coat 51 of the image guide fiber bundle 22 is set to be located further toward the proximal end than the proximal end of the lens frame 53. The tip of the coat 51 is filled with the adhesive 54. That is, the exposed portion of the jacket glass 50 is filled with the adhesive 54.

The objective optical system configured as described above is coated with adhesive 5 at the tip of the insertion section 10 together with the light guide fiber bundle.
It is fixed at 5. At this time, the adhesive 55 is used to fix the portion closer to the proximal end than the portion supplemented with the adhesive 54.

[0026] If the light guide fiber (not shown) is made of multi-component glass, it can be made to have "stiffness" so that it can be easily pushed into the multi-lumen tube if the fiber is about 50 to 100 microns. Furthermore, when inserting built-in objects into the multi-lumen tube, the slipperiness of the multi-lumen tube relative to the built-in objects greatly affects assembly workability, so fluororesin, PVC, etc. are suitable materials for the multi-lumen tube.

The maximum outer diameter of the conventional objective optical system as shown in FIG. 8 was determined by the outer diameter of the conduit portion + the thickness of the primary coat + the thickness of the lens frame. This is because the inner diameter of the lens frame 53 must be set to a diameter that can accommodate at least the primary coat 51 of the image guide fiber bundle 22. In the case of this configuration example, at least the jacket glass 50 can be inserted into the lens frame 53. Therefore, the thickness of the primary coat 51 can be omitted from the factor determining the maximum outer diameter.

When bending stress is applied to a portion of the image guide fiber bundle 22 where the primary coat 51 is not covered and the jacket glass 50 is exposed, micro-cracks may occur in the jacket glass 50 and it may break at once. . However, in this configuration example, since the objective optical system is covered with the adhesive 54 and the adhesive 55 in a hard manner, damage to the jacket glass 50 can be prevented.

Furthermore, before inserting the tip of the light guide fiber bundle into the multi-lumen tube, it is previously formed into a rod shape with a hard portion, and the length of this hard portion is determined from the objective optical system to the tip of the primary coat. If the length is made longer than the length of , the light guide fiber bundle will be in a state of supporting the image guide fiber bundle, and the bending strength of the image guide fiber will be improved.

FIG. 9 shows another example of the state in which the image guide fiber and the objective lens 52 are bonded. As shown in the figure, adhesive strength can be increased by applying adhesive 56 all around the joint.

By the way, by making the outer diameter of the lens frame, which is the outermost diameter of the objective optical system, smaller, the diameter of the insertion section can be made smaller, allowing the endoscope to be inserted deeper into the living body or into smaller diameter parts. It is now possible to insert.

In addition, in this configuration, the primary coat 51 at the tip of the image guide fiber bundle 22 is peeled off and the image guide fiber bundle 22 is adhesively fixed to the lens frame 53, so the primary coat 51 is made of silicone resin, which has poor adhesive properties. The image guide fiber bundle 22 can be reliably fixed to the lens frame 53 even if it is a lens frame 53.

[0033]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, while maintaining a simple structure as a connector, the light guide fiber in the light guide connector is prevented from breaking when the light guide connector is attached or detached. , which has the effect of constantly sending bright illumination light into the body.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 to FIG. 6 relate to an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the light guide connector.

FIG. 2 is an overall schematic diagram of a catheter-type endoscope.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the distal end of the insertion section.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the first branch.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the second branch.

FIG. 6 is a comparative cross-sectional view of a light guide connector.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the objective optical system showing the distal end of the image guide in the catheter-type endoscope.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing a conventional example of an image guide distal end portion of a catheter type endoscope.

FIG. 9 is a partially enlarged sectional view showing another example of the adhesion state between the image guide fiber and the objective lens.

[Fig. 10] Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 relate to a conventional example, and Fig. 1
0 is a sectional view of the light guide connector.

FIG. 11 is an arrow view of the tip of FIG. 10;

[Explanation of symbols]

17...Light guide tube 18...Light guide connector 23...Light guide fiber 36...Band pipe 37...Connector pipe 38...Heat shrink tube 39...Heat shrink tube

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A flexible light guide fiber bundle having a hard part at one end; a base pipe provided on the outer periphery of the hard part; An endoscope comprising: a connector pipe extending to a flexible portion of the bundle; and a light guide cord covering the light guide fiber bundle and having one end extending to the outer periphery of the connector pipe.