JPH06169879A - Endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an endoscope ensuring a high cleaning effect for an objective optical system, and having such a nozzle as not the field of view. CONSTITUTION:This endoscope has the first lens 6 of an objective lens group partly exposed on the forward end 1 of an insertion section, a nozzle 12 having an opening 12a in the vicinity of the exposed part for cleaning the exposed section of the first lens 6, and a recess 15 at area where the opening 12a comes in contact for reducing the height of the nozzle 12 projected from contact area at least by an amount corresponding to the wall thickness B of the nozzle 12. According to this construction, the opening 12a of the nozzle 12 can be kept near the first lens 6 without any hindrance to the image pickup field of view shown with an arrow A, thereby increasing cleaning capability for the exposed lens section.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an endoscope having a nozzle for cleaning an objective optical system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an endoscope is inserted into a body cavity or the like,
Mucus or the like may adhere to the lens surface exposed to the outside of the objective lens system provided at the tip of the endoscope, and the lens surface may become dirty. In such a case, this dirt is removed by supplying air or water from a nozzle or the like fixed to the tip.

Conventionally, various endoscopes having a nozzle capable of cleaning such an objective optical system have been proposed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-185225 discloses an endoscope having a nozzle in which a pipe is bent. A mirror is listed,
As shown in FIG. 7, a pipe-shaped nozzle 51 protruding from the tip-constituting metal piece 52 in the tip direction is bent toward the exposed surface of the first lens 53 of the objective optical system along the surface of the tip-constituting metal piece 52. Is configured.

Another type of nozzle 55 as shown in FIG. 8 has also been proposed, in which a nozzle fixing member 56 provided inside the distal end portion of the endoscope is fitted with a fitting portion 55a of the torch-like nozzle 55. Is fixed and attached,
It is a so-called torchka nozzle having an opening 55b protruding from the tip end surface of the endoscope in the direction of the first lens 57.

[0005]

However, in the structure of the endoscope having the nozzle described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-185225, the distance between the nozzle and the lens surface is reduced in order to enhance the cleaning effect of the lens surface. However, if the nozzle is brought too close to the lens surface, the nozzle comes into the observation visual field and the visual field is obscured. On the other hand, when the distance between the nozzle and the lens surface is too large, not only the cleaning effect and the water drainage property are deteriorated but also the diameter of the tip portion is increased.

Further, in the torchka nozzle shown in FIG. 8, the fitting portion 55 between the nozzle fixing fitting 56 and the nozzle 55 is used.
There is a problem in that the diameter of the torchka nozzle is increased due to the engaging portion with a and the like, which in turn causes the diameter of the endoscope to be increased.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an endoscope having a nozzle that has a high effect of cleaning an objective optical system and that does not obscure the visual field.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the endoscope according to the present invention includes an objective optical system, a part of which is exposed at the distal end of the insertion section, and an objective optical system of the objective optical system. A nozzle having an opening in the vicinity of the exposed portion for cleaning the exposed portion, and a corresponding contact surface of the nozzle provided on a surface with which the opening of the nozzle abuts, at least by a thickness of the nozzle. And a recess for reducing the height of protrusion from.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a distal end portion of an endoscope, and FIG. 2 is a front view showing a distal end surface of the distal end portion. The endoscope of the first embodiment is an electronic endoscope, and has an elongated insertion portion extending from a hand operation portion (not shown). This insertion portion has a flexible tube portion having flexibility, a bending portion that is operated to be bent by an angle knob (not shown) provided in the hand operation portion, and a tip portion 1 from the hand side. .

As shown in FIG. 1, the tip portion 1 has a tip constituting metal 3, and a tip plastic cover 4 is coated on the tip side thereof. The tip portion 1 is provided with an image pickup unit 5 which is arranged so as to penetrate the tip constituting metal piece 3 and the tip plastic cover 4 in the longitudinal direction thereof. The first lens 6 of the objective lens group is fitted and attached to the front end side of the lens receiver 7. The tip surface of the first lens 6 is exposed on the tip surface of the endoscope. An image pickup device such as a CCD (not shown) is arranged on the focal plane of the objective lens group having the first lens 6, and a signal line extending from the image pickup device is arranged toward the hand operation section. Has been done. Note that the field of view of the endoscope is a portion within the range indicated by the dotted line in the drawing, and the one within the angle of view indicated by arrow A is captured as an endoscopic image.

The endoscope is provided with an air / water supply pipe 9 connected to an air / water supply tube (not shown) provided inside the insertion portion. The air / water supply pipe 9 is It communicates with the nozzle 12 provided on the tip end side through the air / water supply conduit 11. The nozzle 12 is
The hand side (the right side in the drawing) is fixed to the nozzle mounting cylinder 13 fixedly installed inside the tip-constituting metal fitting 3, and, on the other hand,
The tip side is exposed from the tip portion 1 of the endoscope.

The nozzle 12 is of a type in which a pipe is bent, and the bent portion 12b is located near the root of the exposed portion.
The bent portion 12b is bent at an angle slightly exceeding 90 degrees. Further, the bent portion 12b has an opening 12a on the front end side, and the opening is configured to face the direction of the first lens 6. From the nozzle 12 via the air / water supply conduit 11 as described above,
Air is supplied to and water is supplied to the first lens 6 by operating a button on an operation unit (not shown) to remove dirt from the first lens 6.

As shown in FIG. 1, the tip plastic cover 4 has a depth (corresponding to the wall thickness of the pipe used for the nozzle 12 at the portion where the tip of the nozzle 12 abuts in the vicinity of the first lens 6). In the figure, a recess 15 having a depth B) is formed. That is, this recess 15
Is formed so that the cylindrical nozzle 12 penetrates by the thickness B thereof and abuts it most efficiently, and is abraded easily, and as shown in FIG. It has a slightly elongated rectangular shape along the direction. And
In the space between the nozzle 12 and the recess 15, the filler 1
6 is enclosed to prevent dirt and the like from accumulating.

Further, a light guide is internally provided in the endoscope, and two emission ends 17 are exposed at the tip portion 1 of the endoscope as shown in FIG. The light guide is connected to a light source device via a universal cord (not shown), and illumination light is supplied from the light source device.

Further, in the endoscope, a channel 18 for inserting a treatment instrument is provided in the insertion portion from the hand operation portion, and one end of the channel 18 is opened at the distal end portion 1 as shown in FIG. is doing.

The operation of the first embodiment thus constructed will be described. Light supplied by a light source (not shown) is transmitted through the light guide inside the endoscope and emitted from the emission end 17 of the distal end portion 1. Then, the object illuminated by this illumination light is imaged by the objective lens group on the imaging surface of the image sensor. The formed subject image is photoelectrically converted by the image pickup device, and the converted electric signal is transmitted to a CCU (camera control unit) (not shown) through a signal line provided inside the endoscope, and this CCU is used. Signal processing or the like is performed to convert the signal into a standard TV signal, which is output to a monitor so that an operator or the like can observe an image.

When such an endoscope is used in, for example, surgery, mucus may adhere to the surface of the first lens 6 of the objective lens group and a sufficient visual field may not be obtained. . In such a case, by operating the air / water supply button of the operation unit (not shown), the cleaning liquid or the cleaning air is sent from the nozzle 12, and the water flow or air flow removes the dirt on the first lens 6 surface. ing. At this time, the water or air discharged from the nozzle 12 weakens the water flow or air flow as the distance from the nozzle 12 increases, and the cleaning effect diminishes.
When the distance between 2a and the surface of the first lens 6 is short, the water and the air flow reach the surface of the first lens 6 in a sufficiently high state, so that a high cleaning effect can be obtained.

According to such a first embodiment, the recess 15
By forming the, the height of the nozzle 12 protruding from the endoscope distal end portion 1 by the thickness B is reduced. This makes it possible to bring the nozzle 12 closer to the first lens 6 of the objective lens group. Then, the field of view of the endoscope shown by the dotted line is not obscured. Further, since the cutting depth of the concave portion 15 is set to the thickness of the nozzle 12, the opening area of the nozzle 12 does not change, and thus air supply and water supply are not affected.
Further, since the recess 15 is filled with the filler, the formation of the recess does not make it easier for dirt and the like to collect.

In this way, the nozzle is the first lens of the objective lens group.
Since the lens can be brought sufficiently close to the lens, the cleaning power and drainage of the lens surface are improved, and the diameter of the endoscope can be reduced. Although the electronic endoscope is used as the endoscope in the present embodiment, it goes without saying that it can be widely used for fiberscopes and various other endoscopes.

By the way, as described above, the endoscope is provided with the angle knob for operating the bending of the bending portion in the operation portion thereof. The angle knob of such an endoscope is
The drum or sprocket directly connected to the knob is rotated to pull and drive the angle wire wound around the drum. That is, when the bending portion bends, the endoscope winds the bending operation wire fixed to the distal end side of the bending portion around the drum of the operation portion on the hand side to move the wire back and forth to bend the bending operation wire.

Since the radius of such a drum or sprocket has been constant in the past, when the angle angle increases,
The amount of force for bending the tip may also increase, and the torque of the angle knob may increase. Particularly, in recent years, the endoscope has been reduced in diameter, so that in the case where the endoscope has a high filling rate of built-in objects, the amount of bending force at the tip portion increases and the amount of angle knob force also increases.

As described above, in the conventional configuration, the amount of force of the angle knob for performing the bending operation is large, and the operation may be difficult. In view of such a problem, a configuration for reducing the amount of force required to operate the angle knob to improve the operability of the endoscope will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

As shown in the drawing, the radius of the drum 21 is not constant around the rotation center axis O, and the radius of the drum 21 decreases as the bending operation wire 22 is wound around the drum 21, that is, when the bending is applied. Is configured to. That is, the drum 21 is formed in a spiral shape so that the radii of the respective parts have a relationship of r1>r2> r3 as shown in the figure. Needless to say, the radii of these intermediate portions also gradually decrease smoothly. And, the method of reducing these radii is configured so that the best operability is obtained when the angle knob is operated.

Although four drums are provided for each of the U, D, R, and L bending directions, only one drum is shown here.

According to such a configuration, in the angle neutral state, the drum 21 and the bending operation wire 22 have the positional relationship shown in FIG. 3, and when the angle is applied from this state, the drum is counterclockwise in the drawing. Rotate in the direction
The bending operation wire 22 is gradually wound around, and the radius of the drum is gradually reduced at that time. Then, the state shown in FIG. 4 is applied. By reducing the drum radius in this way, it is possible to cope with an increase in the amount of bending force, and it is possible to prevent an increase in the amount of operating force for the angle knob. In the configuration shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the bending operation wire 22 does not double-wrap around the drum 21 even when an angle is applied.

According to this structure, the drum diameter gradually decreases as the angle angle increases, so that it is possible to prevent the amount of operation force of the angle knob from increasing. This allows
The operability of the endoscope can be improved.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, when performing an operation using a flexible laparoscope, the operator 31 and the assistant 3
2 is often the opposite position. At the time of such an operation, an external camera is attached to the observation endoscope 33, and an image signal output from this camera is displayed on a monitor through an CCU 35 such as a video processor for observation. I am trying to do it. As described above, since the surgeon 31 and the assistant 32 are located facing each other, they are observed on separate monitors. The surgeon 31 uses the operator monitor 36 and the assistant 32 uses the assistant. Monitor 37 is used.

In such a configuration, the CCU3 is conventionally used.
The signal from No. 5 is input to the operator's monitor 36, passed through, and input to the assistant's monitor 37.
In such a conventional configuration, as shown in FIG.
A treatment instrument actually left on the assistant 32, for example, the treatment instrument 41, is observed on the right side on the assistant monitor 37, and a treatment instrument actually on the right, for example, the treatment instrument 42,
On the assistant monitor 37, there is a problem that it may be observed on the left side. That is, in the conventional configuration, the endoscopic image observed by the assistant 32 is often left-right opposite to the actual position, and as a result, there is a problem that the operation becomes very difficult to perform.

In view of these problems, therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, when the video signal is transmitted from the operator monitor 36 to the assistant monitor 37, the left and right signals are displayed in reverse. It is configured to output to the assistant monitor 37 via the converter 38. As a result, the assistant 3
The left-right positional relationship of the image of the assistant monitor 37 observed by 2 matches the actual left-right positional relationship of the assistant 32, as shown in FIG. 6B.

According to the configuration shown in FIG. 5, the positional relationship between the left and right sides of the treatment tool that the operator and the assistant see on the monitor and the positional relationship of the treatment tool that is actually observed with the naked eye match. Therefore, the working efficiency of both the surgeon and the assistant is improved, which in turn improves the efficiency of surgery.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an endoscope having a nozzle that is highly effective in cleaning the objective optical system and that does not obscure the field of view.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 relate to a first embodiment of the present invention.
Is a cross-sectional view of the distal end portion of the endoscope.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing the distal end portion of the endoscope.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an angle drum and a bending operation wire in a state where no bending is applied.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an angle drum and a bending operation wire in a bent state.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of an endoscope system that prevents an image observed by an operator from being left-right reversed for an assistant.

6A and 6B are an image in which a monitor observed by an assistant is turned left and right, and an image in which the left and right are inverted to match each other.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a distal end portion of an endoscope having a nozzle in which a conventional pipe is bent.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a tip portion of an endoscope having a conventional torchka nozzle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Tip 6 ... 1st lens 12 ... Nozzle 12a ... Nozzle opening 15 ... Recess

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An objective optical system, a part of which is exposed at the tip of the insertion section, and a nozzle having an opening near the exposed section for cleaning the exposed section of the objective optical system. An endoscope comprising: a concave portion provided on a surface with which the opening portion of the nozzle abuts, the concave portion reducing a protrusion height from the corresponding contact surface of the nozzle by at least a thickness of the nozzle. .