Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Olympus Medical Systems Corporation

Seisuke Takase

Atsushi Watanabe

Masaaki Miyagi

Hiroki Moriyama

Suguru Okaniwa

Isamu Nakajima

Hidehiro Joko

Takehiro Nishiie

Hidenobu Kimura

Naohiro Nakamura

Raifu Matsui

Nobuyuki Matsuura

Takatoshi Yoshida

Yasushi Machida

Tetsuaki Mori

Takaaki Tatebayashi

Akihiro Okubo

Noboyuki Matsuura

A distal end hood that is detachably mounted on a distal end portion of an endoscope includes a groove having a groove bottom portion formed in a ring shape over an entire circumference at a predetermined position on an outer peripheral surface of the distal end hood, a plurality of projections, which are provided on an inner peripheral surface on one side sandwiching the groove and in each of which a tapered surface is formed, the tapered surface reducing a wall thickness by continuously increasing a diameter of an inner peripheral surface from the groove side toward a distal end surface of the distal end hood, and a locking portion provided on a side opposite to the projections sandwiching the groove and locked to the distal end portion of the endoscope, in which the projections are configured to bend at the groove bottom portion toward a proximal end side.

Distal end hood, endoscope, and observation method using endoscope

Maximum hardness of a flexible tube section of an endoscope is set such that substantial maximum hardness at a time when an over-tube is attached is equal to or lower than maximum hardness of a flexible tube section of an endoscope. That is, the maximum hardness of the flexible tube section of the endoscope is set substantially equal to hardness obtained by subtracting hardness of the over-tube itself from the maximum hardness of the flexible tube section of the endoscope. In the endoscopes including a hardness changing mechanism, maximum hardness of the endoscope, to which the over-tube is not attached, and maximum hardness of the endoscope, to which the over-tube is attached, are set substantially equal.

Endoscope system

An endoscope system sets a hardness variation of a thick flexible tube portion and a hardness variation of a thin flexible tube portion such that their respective ratios against base hardness are constant, and as each flexible tube portion becomes thicker, the hardness variation increases and an endoscope with a relatively thin flexible tube portion has a smaller hardness variation. This makes it possible to avoid situations like an endoscope with a thick flexible tube portion lacking hardness or an endoscope with a thin flexible tube portion becoming too hard, and makes it possible to perform optimum insertion operation in accordance with the thickness of a flexible tube.

Endoscope system having first and second endoscopes with insertion sections having different hardness variation amounts

An endoscope system includes an endoscope including an insertion section formed in an elongated shape, a flexible tube portion provided at a proximal end side of the insertion section, and a rigidity changing mechanism portion provided inside the flexible tube portion, and configured to change rigidity of the flexible tube portion by an operation performed on a hand side, and a flexible overtube formed in a cylindrical shape extending in an axial direction, into which the insertion section is inserted, where a rigidity change region of the flexible tube portion by the rigidity changing mechanism portion is set to be from an intermediate portion to a proximal end portion of the flexible tube portion, and a total length of the overtube in the axial direction is set to be shorter than a total length of the rigidity change region.

Endoscope system including overtube and endoscope having rigidity changing mechanism

An endoscope includes: an insertion portion formed in an elongated shape; a mesh tube formed by braiding thin wires in a tubular shape and provided in a shape of a cylinder inside the insertion portion; and a rigidity changing mechanism including a coil inserted in the insertion portion and formed by winding an element wire, and a wire inserted in the coil and formed by intertwining element wires, the rigidity changing mechanism being configured to apply a compression force to the coil by pulling the wire, to adjust a bending rigidity of the insertion portion, wherein a dimension of a gap created between the thin wires in the mesh tube is set to be smaller than a diameter of the wire and larger than a diameter of each of the element wires of the wire.

Endoscope with mesh tube

An endoscopic insertion aid includes a tube member, a pipeline and a plurality of balloons. The tube member allows an insertion section of an endoscope to be inserted therethrough, and guides the longitudinal movement of the insertion section. The pipeline is provided in the tube member, and communicates with a supply/discharge unit to supply a fluid to or discharge the fluid from the distal end of the tube member. The balloons are disposed on the outer periphery of the distal end of the tube member longitudinally along the tube member, communicate with the pipeline, and inflate/deflate in accordance with the supply/discharge of the fluid via the pipeline. The balloon disposed on the distal side of the tube member is inflated to have an outside diameter larger than that of the balloon disposed closer to the proximal side than the balloon disposed on the distal side when the balloons are inflated.

Endoscopic insertion aid, endoscopic system, and method of inserting insertion portion of endoscope into body cavity by use of endoscopic insertion aid

An endoscope includes an observation window for observing an image of a photographic subject; an illumination window for emitting illumination light for illuminating the photographic subject; a suction port connected to a suction channel are provided on a distal end surface of an insertion portion; an observation window peripheral edge portion which is formed so that a surface having the observation window is vertical to an observation light axis; an illumination window peripheral edge portion which is formed so that a surface having the illumination window is vertical to an illumination light axis which tilts outward with respect to the observation light axis; and a suction port peripheral edge portion which is formed so that a surface having the suction port is flush with the observation window peripheral edge portion.

Endoscope and front cover

An endoscope includes an insertion unit having an inclined portion in a distal surface of the insertion unit; an illuminating unit provided in the inclined portion of the distal surface, and illuminating an inside of a body cavity; an observation window provided in the distal surface to observe the inside of the body cavity; and an air and water feeding nozzle provided in the distal surface to supply at least one of air and water to the observation window and the illuminating unit. A first contact distal portion and a second contact distal portion are formed in the distal surface. The first contact distal portion comes into contact with a flat surface and is provided in the air and water feeding nozzle, and the second contact distal portion is provided in except for at least one of the observation window and the illuminating unit.

Endoscope

An endoscope system includes a first endoscope that includes a first distal end portion, a first observation window provided at the first distal end portion, a first objective optical system optically coupled to the first observation window and having a first viewing angle, and a first treatment instrument channel opening positioned at a first distance away from the first observation window; and a second endoscope that includes a second distal end portion, a second observation window provided at the second distal end portion, a second objective optical system optically coupled to the second observation window and having a second viewing angle wider than the first viewing angle, and a second treatment instrument channel opening positioned at a second distance longer than the first distance.

Endoscope system and endoscope

An endoscope according to the present invention includes an endoscope main body, in which a channel having at least one end communicated with the outside is inserted and which is covered with an exterior member, and a communicating hole which is arranged in the halfway of the channel and which introduces vapor in the channel so as to sterilize the channel with the vapor.

Endoscope for sterilizing built-in elongated channel with high-temperature and high-pressure vapor

An endoscope includes an insertion unit; an observation optical system arranged at an end surface of the insertion unit in an inserting axis direction and having a wide viewing angle for observing a body cavity; and a plurality of illumination optical systems arranged on an axis slanted with respect to the inserting axis direction of the insertion unit and used when illuminating the body cavity. An illumination lens of at least one of the illumination optical systems is subjected to light diffusion process.

Endoscope having an illumination lens subjected to light diffusion process

An endoscope electric connection device accommodated within a scope connector for connecting an electronic endoscope and an external apparatus, the device including a first band having a first contact portion to which a signal line of a transmission cable for transmitting an image signal from an image pickup unit of the electronic endoscope is connected and a second contact portion to which a ground line of the transmission cable is connected, a second band having a third contact portion connecting to a connector for electrically connecting to the external apparatus and having flexibility, and a transmitting portion provided in the first band and second band for electrically connecting the first contact portion and second contact portion to the third contact portion, wherein the transmitting portion can keep electric connection between the first contact portion and second contact portion and the third contact portion even with the second band bent.

Endoscope electric connection device

A method for autoclave sterilization of an endoscopeof the present invention includes the step of making a space, which is defined by the outer side of a channel and an outer covering member of the endoscope, communicate with the outside of the endoscope, while at least one end of the channel communicates with the outside of the endoscopeand the channel is inserted through the insideof the endoscope. The spaceand the outside of the endoscope are once brought into the negative pressure. Thereafter, steam is introduced in the spaceand the outside of the endoscope, and the endoscopeis sterilized.

Method for high-temperature high-pressure steam sterilization treatment of endoscope and endoscope

An endoscope device in accordance with the present invention consists mainly of an endoscope, a light source apparatus, a video processor, and a monitor. The endoscope includes an insertion unit, an operation unit, a linkage cord, a connector unit, and an electric connector. The insertion unit is flexible and elongated. The operation unit is coupled to the proximal end of the insertion unit. The endoscope can undergo at least one of cleansing, disinfection, and sterilization that is performed at a high temperature. Furthermore, a drop in the temperature of at least part of the external surface of the operation unit of the endoscope occurring when the endoscope is cooled within a predetermined domain of temperatures is substantially equal to or larger than a drop in the temperature of at least part of the external surface of the insertion unit.

Endoscope device

An endoscope of the present invention includes a flexible tube section having an outer sheath layer composed of resin for constituting an endoscope insertion section and a slender tube member inserted into the endoscope insertion section, wherein the amount of shrink of the tube member after the completion of a high temperature/high pressure steam sterilization process is set as much as or greater than the amount of shrink of the flexible tube section after the completion of the high temperature/high pressure steam sterilization process.

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Seisuke Takase