JPS6160698B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an endoscope equipped with a treatment tool such as forceps.

A treatment tool used in an endoscope is inserted into a body cavity through an insertion path such as a forceps channel. In this case, accurately understanding the amount of protrusion of the treatment instrument from the tip of the endoscope is important to ensure safe endoscopy, such as preventing the body cavity wall from being inadvertently damaged by the tip of the treatment instrument. It is important to carry out Conventionally, the amount of protrusion of the treatment instrument is measured visually through the observation window of the observation optical system installed in parallel at the tip of the endoscope, but it is difficult to know the amount of protrusion accurately, especially when using a side-viewing endoscope. In this case, since the protrusion angle of the treatment instrument is variable,
In some cases, the tip of the treatment instrument may not be within the field of view of the observation optical system, making it impossible to determine the protrusion state, which poses a safety problem.

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an endoscope that can accurately determine the amount of protrusion of a treatment tool from the tip of the endoscope, and that allows the treatment tool to be used safely. There is a particular thing.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the figure, 1 is an endoscope, 2 is an operation part of this endoscope 1, 3 is an insertion part, 3a is a tip part, 4 is an eyepiece part, 5
is a forceps insertion port, and 6 is a light guide cable. Further, an image guide 8 using an optical fiber bundle or the like is inserted into the endoscope 1. One end of the image guide 8 is guided to the eyepiece 4, and the other end faces an objective lens 9 provided at the tip 3a. Further, 10 is a light guide using an optical fiber bundle or the like, and an output end 10a of this light guide 10 is arranged on the inner surface of a forceps opening 12, which will be described later.

In addition, the endoscope 1 has a channel 1 for inserting a treatment instrument.
1 is interpolated. One end side of this channel 11 is connected to the forceps insertion port 5. The other end of the channel 11 is connected to a forceps port 12 formed in the distal end portion 3a, and the channel 11 and the forceps port 12 form an insertion path 13 for inserting a treatment instrument. The inner surface of the forceps opening 12 is subjected to a low-reflection treatment such as black plating so that light from the light guide 10 is less likely to be reflected.

A forceps 14, which is an example of a treatment tool, is inserted into the insertion passage 13. The surface of the forceps 14 has been optically treated with low reflectance, such as black plating, and the tip thereof has a position information indicating section 15 as shown in FIG.
is provided. The position information indicating section 15 is provided with an annular mark 16 having an optically high reflectance, such as white paint, on the above-described low reflectance surface. These high reflectance marks 16...
As shown in FIG. 3, the marks are provided so that the distance between the marks gradually narrows as the distance from the forceps tip 14a increases. As an example, the distance between the marks near the forceps tip 14a is approximately 5 mm,
The interval between the marks is gradually narrowed from the tip to point P, which spans a length of 65 mm, and from this point
High reflectance marks 17 are continuously formed over a length of 100 mm.

A photoelectric element 20 is arranged near the light guide output end 10a. This photoelectric element 20
constitutes a reading means for reading the position information indicating section 15 described above. And this photoelectric element 2
0 is connected to an amplifier 21 via a signal line. This amplifier 21 has an eyepiece section 4 that adjusts the forceps protrusion amount according to the output voltage of the photoelectric element 20 as described later.
A display device 22 for displaying information inside is connected. 23
is a comparator, and this comparator 23 is connected to the photoelectric element 2
Alarm device 2 that exceeds the set value V _A with an output voltage of 0
4 and outputs a warning sound. These alarm device 24 and display device 22 constitute display means of the present invention. In addition, light guide 10
The distance l ₁ from the midpoint between the output end 10a and the photoelectric element 20 to the exit of the forceps port 12 is
The distance is set to approximately 5 mm to match the distance from 4a to the first mark ₁₆₁ .

The endoscope 1 configured as described above has the forceps 14
is inserted into the insertion passage 13 from the forceps insertion port 5.
Until the forceps tip 14a reaches the forceps mouth 12, the light from the output end 10a of the light guide 10 is slightly reflected on the inner surface of the forceps mouth 12, which has a low reflectance, and enters the photoelectric element 20. At this time, the output of the photoelectric element 20 is constant at V _p as shown in FIG. When the forceps tip 14a reaches the forceps mouth 12, the first high reflectance mark ₁₆₁ is located near the midpoint between the light guide output end 10a and the photoelectric element 20, so the output of the photoelectric element 20 is As shown in Figure 5, the voltage exceeds V _p and begins to rise. When the forceps 14 are further pushed out from the forceps opening 12,
As the interval between the high reflectance marks 16 gradually narrows and the number of marks per unit length increases, the amount of reflected light incident on the photoelectric element 20 is reduced by the forceps tip 14.
It increases in proportion to the amount of protrusion of a, and the output of the photoelectric element 20 further increases. A numerical value corresponding to this output voltage is displayed on the display 22 as the forceps protrusion amount.
Therefore, the operator must move the eyepiece 4 while looking into the eyepiece 4.
The amount of forceps protrusion can be known by looking at the display 22 inside.

When the forceps protrusion exceeds a predetermined value, for example 55 mm, and the output power of the photoelectric element 20 exceeds V _A ,
An alarm device 24 is operated by the comparator 23 and generates an alarm sound to notify the operator. Note that a warning lamp may be configured to flash instead of the warning sound. When the amount of forceps protrusion exceeds a certain amount (60 mm), the light from the light guide 10 is reflected by the continuous high reflectance marks 17 after point P, so the amount of reflection becomes constant and the output of the photoelectric element 20 is also constant.

In this way, according to this embodiment, the forceps tip 14a
High reflectance mark 16 provided according to the amount of protrusion...
By reading... with the photoelectric element 20,
It becomes possible to accurately grasp the forceps protrusion amount.
In addition, since an alarm is issued when a predetermined protrusion amount is reached, for example, if the insertion section 3 is carelessly bent or the tip 3a is moved while the forceps 14 are being protruded, the forceps tip 14a may damage the body cavity wall. etc. can be prevented from being damaged. Furthermore, since it is easily known that the forceps tip 14a has reached the forceps opening 12, the operation of inserting the forceps 14 becomes easier.

In this example, a highly reflective mark is used as the position information indicating section, but for example, a magnetic recording medium may be provided on the surface of the forceps along the axial direction of the forceps, and the magnetic recording medium may be provided with a mark according to the amount of forceps protrusion. The information may be recorded and read by a magnetic reading device provided on the endoscope side.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention is applicable not only to forceps, but also to other general treatment tools such as high-frequency processing tools, basket gripping tools, contrast medium tubes, and the like. Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to direct-viewing endoscopes, but can be similarly applied to side-viewing endoscopes and the like.

Furthermore, the position information indicating section does not necessarily need to be provided at the tip of the treatment instrument; for example, a reading section may be provided on the operation section on the hand side, and the treatment instrument may be placed at a position corresponding to the reading section, that is, near the operation section. A position information indicating section may also be provided.

As explained above, in this invention, the forceps are provided with a positional information indicating section corresponding to the amount of protrusion of the tip of the forceps, and this positional information indicating section is read by the reading section to display the amount of protrusion of the forceps. Compared to the conventional method of checking the protrusion amount visually through the observation window of the observation optical system, it is now possible to determine the protrusion amount much more accurately, which greatly improves the safe use of treatment instruments. It has a certain effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an endoscope, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the tip of the endoscope, FIG. 3 is a side view showing the tip of the forceps, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the photoelectric element and display means, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the amount of protrusion of the forceps and the output voltage of the photoelectric element. 1... Endoscope, 13... Insertion path, 14... Forceps (treatment instrument), 14a... Forceps tip, 15... Position information indicator, 16, 17... High reflectance mark, 20
... photoelectric element (reading means), 22 ... indicator (display means), 24 ... alarm (display means).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an endoscope equipped with a treatment tool and an insertion path through which the treatment tool is inserted and removed, the treatment tool has a surface that protrudes from the tip of the endoscope. A positional information indicator indicating the amount is provided along the axial direction of the treatment instrument, and a reading means for reading the positional information indicator is provided in the middle of the insertion passage, and operates based on a signal from this reading means to read the positional information indicator. An endoscope characterized by being provided with a display means for displaying a protrusion amount. 2. Claims characterized in that the position information indicating section is a high reflectance mark whose optical reflectance changes according to the amount of protrusion of the treatment instrument, and this change is read by a photoelectric element. The endoscope according to item 1.