Otu Medical Inc.

Otu Medical Inc., a California Corporation

Xiyi Wei

Geping Liu

Xibo Wei

The present invention discloses a flexible digital ureteroscope that is at least partially disposable. The ureteroscope comprises a single-use catheter and a handle. The catheter comprises a distal end, a bend portion, and a proximal portion. The distal end has a rigid or semi-rigid shell that houses a set of micro lenses, an image sensor microchip, and a plurality of LED light sources. A working channel extends along the entire catheter and is coupled to a working channel port on the handle to receive various medical devices and irrigation lines during an endoscopic procedure. In addition, the catheter includes one or more steering wires to control the distal end to bend towards a desired direction. The rigid or semi-rigid shell of the distal end is made of a mix of polymer composite material with graphene nano-filler for enhancing thermal dissipation. The handle may be a single-use handle or a reusable handle. In case the handle is a reusable handle, it includes a battery module and a wireless communication module for communicating with a host machine wirelessly. In case the handle is a single-use handle, to reduce cost, the handle does not include a battery module and/or a wireless communication module. Rather, the single-use handle includes a host interface for receiving power from the host machine and transmits image data to the host machine.

Flexible digital ureteroscope

This present invention proposes new methods of designing single-use endoscopes with built-in optical fibers and operating fixtures. As compared to conventional endoscopes, a separate lumen is reserved for integrating a laser fiber along the insertion tube of the proposed endoscope, and an optical fiber placement device (OFPD) is correspondingly added in the endoscope handle for controlling the movement of the laser fiber. By sliding the slider or dialing the wheel of OFPD, a surgeon can conveniently control movement of the laser fiber. By pressing a retractable control stick in the OFPD, the surgeon can either push the laser fiber out from the endoscope's distal-end or pull back the laser fiber, further unlocking or locking the power switch of the laser fiber to avoid mis-operations. All these above operations can be performed by the surgeon's one-hand, including the routine deflections and rotations of the endoscope. Four implementations of the OFPD are introduced in this invention. In addition, an ultra-small optical fiber based pressure sensor can be added at the distal end of the endoscope upon applications.

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Ningbo, China

Xiyi Wei