Clarus Medical Systems, Inc.

Clarus Medical, LLC

Craig L Riedl

Thomas C Barthel

John C Vanden Hoek

Miles A Finn

Thomas A Poss

Mark F Brown

Scott Allen Sundet

Rocky R Campbell

Steve Lombardi

Dinh Thuc Ha

An optical fiber viewing assembly for an endoscope has a light guide with an elastically flexible portion and a substantially rigid pre-curved distal portion. The viewing assembly is particularly suited for traversing bends of relatively small radii in an endotracheal breathing tube without scraping accumulated biological material from the inner surface of the breathing tube that could collect on the distal end of the light guide and obscure the endoscopic view.

Endoscope with flexible light guide having offset distal end

A hand held endoscopic viewing system including a viewing assembly, an eyepiece assembly, and a handle is disclosed. The components are releasably mounted for ease of use and cleaning. The viewing assembly incorporates a fiber optic image bundle for carrying an image to the eyepiece assembly. The proximal end of the image bundle terminates in a coupling assembly that couples the eyepiece assembly to the viewing assembly such that the proximal end of the image carrying bundle is held against a window on the eyepiece assembly. The eyepiece assembly includes focusing optics that define a focal plane at the distal plane of the window for focusing and magnifying the image that is carried to the proximal end of the image bundle. The handle includes a light source and a power source and supports the eyepiece assembly and the viewing assembly at two points.

Hand-held endoscopic viewing system

A surgical instrument for improved viewing of a surgical site by a surgeon from the perspective of a working element of the instrument. The surgical instrument includes an elongated shaft with a distal operating portion extending at least about one-fourth of the length of the shaft. A working element is disposed on a distal end of the shaft. An elongated fiberoptic assembly is included, having image fibers with a distal end with an objective lens for defining a predetermined field-of-view, and a coupling device at a proximal end for coupling same to a viewing system. A mounting device is utilized for mounting the fiberoptic assembly to the shaft along the length of the distal operating portion thereof. The distal end of the image fibers is positioned with a predetermined portion of the working element within the field-of-view of the fiberoptic assembly.

Surgical instrument and method for use with a viewing system

A flexible endoscope have a force limiting coupler. The endoscope comprises an elongated tubular member having a proximal end, a distal end and a wall defining a lumen extending there through. A handle member is fixed to the proximal end of the tubular member. The handle member has a slidable knob member which is coupled to a force limiting means to limit the travel of the knob member. A deflection wire is coupled at one end to the force limiting means and a second end to the distal end of the tubular member. The force limiting means has a predetermined spring constant. The distal end of the endoscope can be deflected in finer increments and acts to preclude potentially damaging forces to be applied to the endoscope or to tissue.

Flexible endoscope with force limiting spring coupler

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Long Lake, MN, United States of America

Craig L Riedl