The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 02, 1995
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1992
Michael Lafferty, Leucadia, CA (US);
Daniel Kline, Carlsbad, CA (US);
Charles S Slemon, Encinitas, CA (US);
Sofamor Danek Properties, Inc., Memphis, TN (US);
Abstract
A hand-held portable arthroscope has a housing and a disposable cap removably attached to the distal end of the housing. A probe which includes a fiber optic image guide and a plurality of optical illuminating fibers is mounted on the cap, and is insertable into a body for imaging the internal structure of the body. The illuminating fibers extend through the cap and are connected in light communication with a quartz halogen lamp for illuminating the internal body structure being imaged. To gather light from the illuminated internal structure of a body into which the probe has been inserted, a GRIN rod is attached to the distal end of the image guide. Focussing optics are mounted in the housing in light communication with the image guide. These focussing optics are axially movable within the housing for focussing the image from the image guide. Light which passes through the focussing optics enters a camera head which is also mounted in the housing. The camera head is in turn electrically connected to a video display device for producing an image of the internal structure of the body.