JP2007244796A - Cleaning device for observation window of endoscope - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently clean an observation window with small amount of cleaning fluid by straightening cleaning fluid to be injected from an injection nozzle in a short runway. <P>SOLUTION: The injection nozzle 30 consists of a communication pathway 32 communicating with a fluid passage 12, and the runway section 34 changing the direction by approximately 90° from the communication pathway 32 and leading to an injection port 33, and the runway section 34 is mounted with a straightening partition 35 connected to left/right side wall portions 30c and 30c and being in parallel to the inner face of a canopy portion 30b to divide the runway section 34 into narrow approximately two upper/lower-stage slit channels. One end of the straightening partition 35 is extended to an approximate extension line position of the communication pathway 32, and the other end is positioned in front of the injection port 33 to form a channel re-converged section 36 to the injection port 33. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention provides an endoscope in which a cleaning liquid and a pressurized gas are jetted to remove a contaminated material when the contaminated material adheres to an observation window provided at the distal end of an insertion portion of the endoscope. This relates to an observation window cleaning apparatus.

  Endoscopes used for medical purposes, etc. are provided with an illumination window and an observation window at the distal end of the insertion portion, and the inside of the body is observed through the observation window under illumination light emitted from the illumination window. When a contaminant such as a body fluid adheres to the surface of the observation window, the observation visual field inside the body is limited, and the sharpness of the observation image obtained through the observation window is lowered. For this purpose, an observation window cleaning device is provided for cleaning the observation window while the insertion portion is inserted into the body. This observation window cleaning device removes droplets adhering to the surface of the observation window by injecting a cleaning liquid toward the observation window to wash away the contaminants and then injecting pressurized gas. Is. Here, water is usually used as the cleaning liquid, and air is used as the pressurized gas.

  Specifically, an injection nozzle is provided in the vicinity of the observation window provided at the distal end of the insertion portion, a cleaning liquid supply path and an air supply path are connected to the injection nozzle, and the cleaning liquid supply path or the air supply path is connected to the injection nozzle. An operation button is provided in the main body operation unit in order to perform control for supplying cleaning liquid or pressurized air to the spray nozzle. In order to control the supply of cleaning liquid and pressurized air, one air / water supply valve is provided, and this air / water supply valve supplies fluid by operating the operation buttons with the fingers of the hand holding the main body operation unit. In general, switching control is performed between three states of a stop state, an air supply state, and a liquid supply state.

The cleaning fluid that is sprayed from the spray nozzle toward the observation window and the cleaning fluid that is a pressurized gas must extend over the entire surface of the observation window. For this reason, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a cleaning fluid can surely act on the entire surface of the observation window from the injection nozzle. In the spray nozzle of Patent Document 1, specifically, a plurality of small holes form a spray port, and a high-pressure fluid is sprayed from each of the spray ports, so that the fluid tends to spread toward the observation window. Therefore, the cleaning fluid is supplied uniformly over a wide range.
JP 2002-85339 A

  By the way, as described in Patent Document 1 described above, the spray nozzle must supply the cleaning fluid all over the observation window. However, the cleaning fluid is not only that but also from the viewpoint of reducing patient pain. Must be minimized. For this reason, the cleaning fluid ejected from the ejection nozzle is ejected at a predetermined flow velocity substantially parallel to the observation window, and acts to scrape off dirt and droplets from the surface of the observation window. .

  An illumination window and an observation window are provided at the distal end portion of the insertion portion, and a direct-view endoscope is provided with these on the distal end surface of the distal end hard portion. Further, a side endoscope is provided with an illumination window and an observation window on the side surface of the distal end hard portion, and there is also a perspective endoscope having an observation field in an obliquely forward direction. In any of these, since the injection port of the injection nozzle is formed on the same surface as the surface on which the observation window is arranged, the cleaning fluid supply path to the injection nozzle is injected from the injection port. Therefore, there is necessarily a direction changing portion having a predetermined angle with respect to the direction to be measured, specifically, an angle of approximately 90 degrees.

  Thus, when there is a direction changing portion in the flow path, turbulent flow is generated, and when fluid is ejected from the ejection port in the turbulent state, the function of removing the contaminants from the observation window is degraded. In other words, in order to improve the efficiency of removing dirt from the observation window, it is ideal that the flow of the cleaning fluid is in a laminar flow state substantially parallel to the surface of the observation window. In the case of a turbulent state, the cleaning efficiency decreases. In particular, as in the configuration of Patent Document 1 described above, when a large number of injection ports made up of small holes are provided, the flow of the fluid often dissipates and does not effectively act on the observation window. In order to allow the cleaning fluid to act on the observation window in a rectified state, if the flow path to the injection port is lengthened after changing the flow path, that is, if a long run-up flow path is provided to the injection port, the fouling may occur. Although the rectifying function necessary for the removal of the object can be exhibited, a sufficiently long run-up channel cannot be formed within a limited range of the distal end portion of the insertion portion.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to rectify the cleaning fluid injected from the injection nozzle in a short approach passage, and to use a small amount of cleaning fluid. The object is to enable the observation window to be efficiently cleaned.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the present invention provides a fluid passage provided in a distal end hard portion of an insertion portion of an endoscope and extending in an axial direction thereof, and connected to the fluid passage, An endoscope observation window cleaning apparatus comprising: an injection nozzle having an injection port for injecting a cleaning fluid toward an observation window provided in a hard part, wherein the injection nozzle is connected to the fluid passage. The passage portion and the canopy surface of the injection nozzle are changed from the communication passage portion to a direction substantially orthogonal to the direction of the flow path, and are formed from a running passage portion that leads to the injection port. One or a plurality of rectifying partition walls are provided in parallel with the canopy surface, and a flow path re-merging portion is formed between the tip of the rectifying partition wall and the injection port.

  The flow of the cleaning fluid in the spray nozzle changes its direction by hitting the canopy surface of the spray nozzle. For example, in the case of a direct-view endoscope, the flow path directed in the axial direction of the insertion portion is bent by approximately 90 degrees so as to be parallel to the distal end surface of the distal end hard portion, that is, in a direction parallel to the surface of the observation window. Will be directed. In order to rectify the turbulent flow generated in the direction change part more quickly and efficiently, the height dimension between the tip surface of the hard tip part and the canopy surface of the injection nozzle, that is, the thickness dimension of the flow path is reduced. Therefore, the slit-shaped flow path may be as thin as possible. Therefore, for simply rectification, the thickness dimension of the flow path can be made thinner by increasing the number of rectifying partition walls. As a result, a sufficient rectification function can be exhibited even if the overall length of the run-up channel is shortened.

  However, if the flow formed into slits by the rectifying partition walls is hierarchized and separated, the upper flow does not act on the observation window. Therefore, by forming the flow path re-merging portion before reaching the injection port, the flow hierarchization when flowing out from the injection port is suppressed, and a single flow toward the observation window is obtained. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a large number of rectifying partition walls. Rather, considering the viscous resistance of the fluid, it is not preferable to use multiple stages. Therefore, the rectifying partition wall has a single-stage structure, or has at most about two stages. And even if the height dimension of the upper and lower slit-shaped flow paths defined by the rectifying partition walls is the same, the lower slit-shaped flow path can be made wider. In addition, one or a plurality of partition walls can be provided in a direction orthogonal to the rectifying partition wall, whereby the disturbance of the flow in the width direction can be adjusted, and the straightness of the fluid flow can be further improved. This partition wall also has a length up to the flow path re-merging portion.

  Here, the cleaning fluid ejected from the ejection nozzle must act on the entire surface of the observation window. For this purpose, the width dimension of the injection nozzle is made as wide as possible on condition that it does not interfere with other members. Moreover, you may comprise so that an injection nozzle may be continuously expanded as it goes to an injection port.

  By configuring as described above, the rectified cleaning fluid can be supplied to the observation window without significantly increasing the overall length of the injection nozzle, and the observation window can be made efficient simply by supplying a small amount of cleaning fluid. Can be cleaned automatically.

    Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an endoscope observation window cleaning apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an endoscope. The endoscope 1 includes a main body operation unit 2 and an insertion unit 3, and a universal cord 4 extends from the main body operation unit 2. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the insertion portion 3 includes a hard tip portion 3 a, and an observation window 11 is formed in the hard tip portion 3 a together with the illumination window 10. Is provided with a cover glass 12, and an objective optical system 13 is disposed inside the cover glass 12. In addition, this cover glass 12 can be comprised with the lens which comprises a part of objective optical system 13, and in this case, it is common to comprise with a plano-concave lens. A solid-state imaging device 14 is provided at the imaging position of the objective optical system 13.

  The observation window 11 in the distal end hard portion 3a is provided with an injection nozzle 30 that constitutes an observation window cleaning device for cleaning the cover glass 12 when dirt is attached to the cover glass 12. The spray nozzle 30 is selectively supplied with the cleaning liquid supplied from the fluid passage 31 formed in the distal end hard portion 3a and the pressurized air as the pressurized gas. The fluid supply passage 15 provided in the insertion portion 3 is connected to the fluid passage 31. An air supply pipe 16 and a liquid supply pipe 17 are joined to the fluid supply flow path 15, and the air supply pipe 16 and the liquid supply pipe 17 are connected to an air supply / liquid supply valve 18 provided in the main body operation unit 2. Furthermore, an air pipe 20 inserted into the universal cord 4 and connected to the air pump 19 and a cleaning liquid pipe 22 connected to the cleaning liquid tank 21 are connected to the air / liquid supply valve 18.

  As is apparent from FIGS. 4 and 5, the injection nozzle 30 includes a communication passage portion 32 that communicates with the fluid passage 31, and a run-up passage that communicates with the injection port 33 by changing the direction from the communication passage portion 32 by approximately 90 degrees. Part 34. The communication passage portion 32 is formed of a cylindrical portion 30 a constituting the injection nozzle 30, and the run-up passage portion 34 includes the canopy portion 30 b of the injection nozzle 30, the surface of the distal end hard portion 3 a and the left and right side walls of the injection nozzle 30. It is a flow path formed by the sections 30c and 30c.

  A rectifying partition wall 35 is attached to the running passage portion 34 of the injection nozzle 30 in parallel with the inner surface of the canopy portion 30b. This rectifying partition wall 35 is connected to the left and right side wall portions 30c, 30c, and the running passage portion 34 is divided into two upper and lower thin slit-like flow paths. In this embodiment, the upper slit shape The flow path and the lower slit-shaped flow path have substantially the same height. One end portion of the rectifying partition wall 35 extends to the extended line position of the communication passage portion 32 and does not cover the extended region of the communication passage portion 32, and the other end is a position before the injection port 33. It has become. Therefore, a flow path re-merging portion 36 reaching the injection port 33 is formed at the tip of the rectifying partition wall 35, and the flow path divided up and down by the rectifying partition wall 35 is again formed by the flow path re-merging portion 36. Have joined. And the width dimension B between the side wall parts 30c and 30c in the approach passage part 34 of the injection nozzle 30 which determines the width | variety of a flow path becomes a grade substantially the same as the diameter D of the observation window 11, as evident from FIG. It is the same as or wider than the ejection width of the cleaning fluid ejected from the ejection nozzle 30.

  The observation window cleaning apparatus according to the present embodiment is configured as described above, and the observation window is inserted while the insertion portion 3 of the endoscope 1 is inserted into the body and examination or treatment is performed. When a pollutant such as a body fluid adheres to the cover glass 12 that constitutes 11, the cleaning liquid is jetted from the jet nozzle 30 toward the observation window 11 and then pressurized air is jetted in order to wash off the pollutant. That is, the air / liquid supply valve 18 attached to the main body operation unit 2 is operated to first switch the air / liquid supply valve 18 to the liquid supply state. Accordingly, the cleaning liquid supplied from the cleaning liquid tank 21 via the cleaning liquid pipe 22 is supplied to the injection nozzle 30 through the liquid supply pipe 17, the fluid supply flow path 15 and the fluid passage 31, and is injected toward the observation window 11. Will be. When the contaminants are removed from the observation window 11, the air / liquid supply valve 18 is switched to the air supply state. As a result, the pressurized air from the air pump 19 is supplied from the air pipe 20 and the air supply pipe 16 to the injection nozzle 30 through the fluid supply passage 15 and the fluid passage 31. As a result, after the contaminants are removed, the droplets remaining in the observation window 11 are removed with the force of pressurized air.

  Whether it is a cleaning liquid or pressurized air, the cleaning fluid sprayed from the spray nozzle 30 toward the observation window 11 efficiently exerts these functions with a minimum spray amount. For this purpose, the cleaning fluid is made to flow in a laminar flow direction in a direction substantially parallel to the observation window 11. However, the cleaning fluid that has flowed from the fluid passage 31 into the communication passage portion 32 of the injection nozzle 30 hits the inner surface of the canopy portion 30 b of the injection nozzle 30 and changes its direction so as to face the injection port 33. During this change of direction, that is, a turbulent flow is generated at the boundary between the communicating path portion 32 and the running path portion 34. The rectifying partition wall 35 is not covered up to the direction changing portion. Therefore, the provision of the rectifying partition wall 35 does not promote turbulent flow.

  And in the approach passage part 34, it is thin by the rectifying partition wall 35 between the rectifying partition wall 35 and the inner surface of the canopy part 30b of the injection nozzle 30 and between the rectifying partition wall 35 and the distal end surface of the distal end hard portion 3a. A slit-like flow path is formed in two stages up and down. Even if the run-up passage 34 is short, the flow of the cleaning fluid changes from a turbulent flow in the direction changing portion into a two-stage laminar flow state by a rectifying action by these two-stage slit-like flow paths. Moreover, instead of being jetted from the jet port 33 with the two-stage flow in this way, the flow path re-merging portion 36 is provided in front of the jet port 33, so that the flow becomes a single flow. It merges and is ejected from the ejection port 33 toward the observation window 11. Thus, the cleaning fluid can be efficiently applied to the observation window 11 with a small flow rate. Further, the width B of the ejection port 33 is substantially the same as the diameter D of the observation window 11 and the ejection width of the cleaning fluid ejected from the ejection nozzle 30 is somewhat widened. 11 is applied over the entire surface of the observation window 11.

  As a result, the ability to remove dirt adhering to the observation window 11 by the cleaning liquid is enhanced, and the dirt can be removed quickly and reliably with a small amount of cleaning liquid. Further, when the pressurized air is supplied to remove the droplets of the cleaning liquid in the observation window 11 performed thereafter, the liquid droplets of the cleaning liquid are removed only by blowing a small amount of air. Thus, the pain given to the patient is minimal.

  In the above-described embodiment, the flow is adjusted so as to take the slit-like flow path by the action of the rectifying partition wall 35, but further, in the direction orthogonal to the rectifying partition wall 35 as shown in FIG. A plurality of partition walls 40 may be provided. If comprised in this way, the disorder of the flow in the width direction of a slit-shaped flow path can be suppressed, and the straightness of the flow of the fluid can be improved more. And the front-end | tip part of this partition wall 40 is extended to the same position as the partition wall 35 for rectification | straightening, and the flow path re-merging part 36 is formed between the injection ports 33. FIG.

1 is a configuration explanatory diagram of an observation window cleaning device for an endoscope showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. It is a figure which shows the front end surface of the insertion part of an endoscope. It is XX sectional drawing of FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the injection nozzle which shows the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a front view of the injection nozzle of FIG. It is a front view of the injection nozzle which shows the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Endoscope 2 Main body operation part 3 Insertion part 3a Hard tip part 10 Illumination window 11 Observation window 12 Cover glass 15 Fluid supply flow path 16 Air supply pipe 17 Liquid supply pipe 18 Air supply / liquid supply valve 30 Injection nozzle 30a Cylindrical part 30b Canopy portion 30c Side wall portion 31 Fluid passage 32 Communication passage portion 33 Injection port 34 Advancing passage portion 35 Rectification partition wall 36 Flow path re-merging portion 40 Partition wall

Claims (2)

A fluid passage provided in the distal end hard portion of the insertion portion of the endoscope and extending in the axial direction thereof, and a cleaning fluid connected to the fluid passage toward the observation window provided in the distal end hard portion In an observation window cleaning device for an endoscope provided with an injection nozzle having an injection port for injecting
The injection nozzle includes a communication passage portion that communicates with the fluid passage, and a run-up passage portion that is changed from the communication passage portion to a direction substantially orthogonal to the flow passage direction by the canopy surface of the injection nozzle and communicates with the injection port. And formed from
In the approach passage part, one or a plurality of rectifying partitions are provided in parallel with the canopy surface,
An observation window cleaning apparatus, characterized in that a flow path re-merging portion is formed between a tip of the rectifying partition wall and the injection port. The observation window cleaning apparatus for an endoscope according to claim 1, wherein one or a plurality of partition walls are provided in the approach passage portion in a direction orthogonal to the partition wall for rectification.

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