Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Medical Systems Corporation

Hiroki Moriyama

Yasuhiro Okamoto

Hiroshi Ishii

Jun Hasegawa

Hisao Yabe

Hironobu Takizawa

Hitoshi Mizuno

Akira Taniguchi

Yasuo Hirata

Hideyuki Adachi

Yoshinao Oaki

Katsuyoshi Sasagawa

Takeshi Yokoi

Hidetake Segawa

Kazutaka Tsuji

Fumiyuki Onoda

Takeshi Kawabata

Sumihiro Uchimura

Atsushi Watanabe

Tetsuya Yamamoto

Yasuhito Kura

Tetsuo Nonami

Kazuhiro Yoshida

Akira Suzuki

Yoshihiro Iida

Yasuhiro Ueda

Osamu Tamada

Kenji Yoshino

Sakae Takehana

Kazuo Banju

Tomoki Funakubo

Keiichi Arai

Toshiaki Noguchi

Masaaki Miyagi

Seisuke Takase

Chieko Aizawa

Takehiro Nishiie

Takayasu Miyagi

Tsugio Okazaki

Seiki Toriyama

Masanao Hara

Yasuhiro Yoshizawa

Masahiro Ishikawa

Hideki Shimonaka

Hiroaki Miyoshi

Yosuke Yoshimoto

Yutaka Masaki

Keijiro Omoto

Hidetoshi Saito

Yasuyuki Futatsugi

Yutaka Tatsuno

Shoichi Amano

Hitoshi Hasegawa

Koichi Kawashima

Yoshitaka Umemoto

Takahiro Kishi

Tatsuya Yamaguchi

Masami Hamada

Jin Kira

Ryu Oshima

Koichi Umeyama

Katsutaka Adachi

Koji Kanbara

Ryouji Masubuchi

Ichiro Takahashi

Ryuhei Fujimoto

Kota Ishibiki

Mikihiko Nakagawa

Yutaka Fujisawa

Seisuke {acute Over (T)}akase

Koji Morishita

Yoshio Tashiro

An insertion apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes: an insertion portion to be inserted into a subject; a bending operation apparatus to be moved by an operator to input an operation instruction; a bending drive section that generates a drive force based on the movement of the bending operation apparatus; a pulling member to be pulled by the drive force from the bending drive section; a bending portion provided in the insertion portion, the bending portion being connected to the pulling member and being bent upon the pulling member being pulled; and a haptic section that connects the pulling member and the bending operation apparatus via an elastic portion.

Insertion apparatus

A bending apparatus includes: a bending portion; an operation element erected vertically from an operation portion having a longitudinal axis and has a shaft portion in which a tilt direction and tilt angle are changeable; a pulling member having one end connected to the bending portion; a pulley on which a rotary body around which the pulling member is wound is arranged; a motor that generates a driving force that rotates the pulley to pull the pulling member wound around the rotary body in a winding direction; a hanging frame that extends in a diameter direction of the shaft portion, and includes an attachment portion to which the other end of the pulling member is attached; and an attachment path setting member provided inside the operation portion, which changes a path of the pulling to the longitudinal axis direction and guides the pulling member to the attachment portion.

Bending apparatus

A rigid endoscope includes a first insertion section extending along longitudinal directions, a first needle defining an outer edge of a first opening, and a first functional section provided in a vicinity of the first opening of a first lumen, and configured to perform some part of functions. The rigid endoscope includes a second insertion section extending along the longitudinal directions, and located apart from the first insertion section in directions perpendicular to the longitudinal directions, a second needle defining an outer edge of a second opening, and a second functional section provided in a vicinity of the second opening of a second lumen, and configured to perform some part of the functions different from the functions performed by the first functional section.

Rigid endoscope

An attachment unit rotates in directions around a longitudinal axis with respect to an insertion main body when rotary drive force is transmitted from a drive force transmission unit provided to an insertion section, and allows propulsive force in one of directions parallel to the longitudinal axis to act on the insertion section by rotating in contact with a paries. The attachment unit includes a fin portion which is spirally extended along the longitudinal axis and whose dimension from the longitudinal axis to an outer peripheral end vary in accordance with how external force different from the propulsive force acts in the directions parallel to the longitudinal axis in a state that the attachment unit does not rotate with respect to the insertion main body.

Attachment unit and endoscope

An insertion device sets engage range which it prescribed in return power to the neutral position by elastic force of the spring and rotation resistance force by the slide power by elastic member for dial portion performing curving operation of a curving portion. If a rotary angle is beyond an engage range, the dial part lets a rotary point of view to order return in an engage range and, if there is a rotary angle in an engage range, the dial part keeps a target part in an observation field of vision.

Insertion device with the operation input unit

An attachment unit includes a tube main body extended along a longitudinal axis in a state that a gap is provided between itself and an outer peripheral portion of an insertion section or a member on the outer peripheral portion of the insertion section, and a tube proximal end portion, provided to a proximal direction side of the tube main body, to which a proximal end of the attachment unit is placed. The tube proximal end portion includes a proximal side gap reducing portion eliminating or reducing the gap as compared with a part to an inner peripheral direction side of the tube main body between itself and the outer peripheral portion of the insertion section or the member, and is placed to a distal direction side of an insertion opening in a use situation.

An endoscope includes an attachment unit detachably attached to an outer peripheral direction side of an insertion section to be rotatable about a longitudinal axis with respect to an insertion main body, and including a gear portion formed over an all-round inner peripheral portion of the attachment unit, a rotary gear meshing with the gear portion to allow the attachment unit to be attached to the insertion section, and a base portion defining a gear arrangement portion where the rotary gear is arranged on an outer peripheral portion of the insertion section. In the endoscope, a channel, extended through an inside of an operation section and an inside of the insertion section from an outer surface of the operation section and opened to an outside of the insertion section in the gear arrangement portion, is defined.

Attachment unit, endoscopic insertion section and endoscope

An endoscope includes a flexible portion extended to a part on a proximal direction side of an insertion main body along a longitudinal axis, and a passive bending portion provided to a distal direction side of the flexible portion in the insertion main body, being more flexible than the flexible portion, and configured to passively bend when external force acts thereon. The endoscope includes an attachment unit which includes a fin portion spirally extended along the longitudinal axis, and through which the insertion section is inserted, and a holding portion provided to the insertion main body, and configured to hold the attachment unit in a state that the attachment unit covers the passive bending portion and that the attachment unit is rotatable about the longitudinal axis with respect to the insertion main body.

Endoscope

An endoscope includes a drive force transmitting section attached to an insertion main body, and configured to transmit rotational drive force that rotates an attachment unit to the attachment unit, and a member inserting portion provided to a proximal direction side of an insertion section. The endoscope includes a first linear member insertable into the insertion section from the member inserting portion and removable from the insertion section through the member inserting portion, and has a distal end connectable to the drive force transmitting section while being inserted into the insertion section. The first linear member is configured to transmit the rotational drive force to the drive force transmitting section when rotated while being connected to the drive force transmitting section.

An endoscope system includes an image pickup section, provided in an endoscope, which performs image pickup, a determining section that determines whether a specific observation object exists inside an image pickup region of the image pickup section, a recognizing section that determines whether the specific observation object can be recognized as an image from the picked-up image in the image pickup region picked up by the image pickup section, a low visibility determination output section that determines, when the determining section determines that the specific observation object exists inside the image pickup region and the recognizing section cannot recognize the specific observation object as an image, that the image pickup section is in a low visibility condition and outputs a low visibility determination result, and an obstacle estimation section that estimates an obstacle or a type of obstacle which causes the low visibility according to the low visibility determination result.

Endoscope system and low visibility determining method

The present invention is an endoscope system comprising an endoscope provided with a distal end inserted into a subject body and a proximal end having a site capable of being held by a physician and provided with an endoscope insertion unit having a first flexible portion arranged on the distal end thereof and a second flexible portion coupled to the proximal end of the first flexible portion and provided with a site having an outer diameter larger than a site having the maximum outer diameter of the first flexible portion; and an endoscope insertion assisting device, in which the inner diameter of a distal opening of an insertion hole through which the endoscope insertion unit is inserted is substantially equal to the outer diameter of the second flexible portion.

Endoscope insertion unit, endoscope and endoscope system

A first bendable section which can be bent in an arbitrary direction and a second bendable section which can be bent in the bending direction of this first bendable section are provided at the tip end side of an insertion portion. A balloon which is inflated/contracted by feed/discharge of a fluid is provided in this second bendable section so that hardness of this second bendable section can be varied and insertion work into a curved portion is facilitated.

Endoscope and method for inserting endoscope into colon

An endoscope system includes a first endoscope that includes a first observation optical system with a first viewing angle; and a second endoscope that includes a second observation optical system with a second viewing angle wider than the first viewing angle. A second distance from a second distal end face of an insertion portion of the second endoscope to a minimum focal point of the second observation optical system is shorter than a first distance from a first distal end face of a distal end portion of the first endoscope to a minimum focal point of the first observation optical system.

Endoscope system having two endoscopes with different viewing angles

An endoscope includes an insertion portion having a bendable portion; an operation portion from which the insertion portion extends; a first bending operation knob arranged on a surface of the operation portion and including depressions and first protrusions, to bend the bendable portion in a first direction when rotated; and a second bending operation knob arranged over the first bending operation knob and including depressions and second protrusions, to bend the bendable portion in a second direction when rotated. A length of the second protrusion from a center of rotation to a tip portion is longer than a length of the first protrusion from the center of rotation to tip portions of the first protrusions, and the second protrusion has a depression near a projection of a circular orbit of rotation of each tip portion of the first protrusions onto a surface facing the first bending operation knob.

Endoscope and supportive member for bending operation of the same

An endoscope hood has a protrusion portion which protrudes in an observation visual field direction of an endoscope at an end of a cylindrical press fitting fixing portion attached by press fitting in a state that an attachment position in a circumferential direction is positioned at a distal end portion of an endoscope insertion portion in an appropriate direction. Further, there is provided attachment state confirming device which increases an area of the protrusion portion displayed in an endoscope observation image when the press fitting fixing portion is attached to a distal end portion of a second endoscope insertion portion having a size different from that of a first endoscope insertion portion to which the press fitting fixing portion can be appropriately attached, and gives a warning about an inappropriate attachment state.

Endoscope hood

Growing community of inventors

Akishima, Japan

Hiroki Moriyama