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:
Dec. 07, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 26, 1997
Lothar Gumb, Karlsdorf-Neuthard, DE;
Aribert Schaf, Bruchsal, DE;
Rainer Trapp, Graben-Neudorf, DE;
Gerhard Buess, Tubingen, DE;
Marc Schurr, Tubingen, DE;
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Karlsruhe, DE;
Abstract
In an apparatus for guiding surgical instruments during endoscopic surgery including a carrier on which a support member is rotatably mounted about a first axis and a housing structure is mounted on the support member so as to pivot about a second axis which is spaced from the housing structure and intersects the first axis in an invariant point and the housing slidably supports an instrument shaft having an axis also extending through the invariant point and an end which is mounted on a guide member, which is axially movably supported on a guide housing extending from the housing structure parallel to the instrument shaft, a camera is firmly supported on the guide housing in alignment with the instrument shaft so as to be axially movable but not rotatable with the instrument shaft whereby an image transmitted from a lens system at the front end of the instrument shaft to the camera at the rear end of the shaft is shown at a given top-to-bottom orientation independently the rotational position of the instrument shaft.