JP3424896B2 - Endoscope conduit mounting structure - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure for attaching a pipe line of an endoscope, and more particularly to a structure of a pipe line for facilitating cleaning of an air / water supply pipe, a suction pipe and the like provided in the endoscope. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an electronic endoscope, which is a scope,
It is composed of a tip part having a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), an insertion part, an operation part, and a cable, which is connected to a light source device and a processor device for image processing. In this type of endoscope, a light guide is used. It is possible to image and observe the inside of the object to be observed illuminated by irradiation. Also,
An air supply pipe, a water supply pipe, a suction pipe, or the like is provided in the endoscope, and air or water is supplied to an observation window or the like at the distal end portion through these conduits, or the body to be observed. It is possible to aspirate and discharge the contents of.

[0003]

By the way, since the endoscope apparatus is used in the medical field, it is necessary to clean, sterilize, and disinfect each of the above-mentioned conduits. In order to efficiently perform this cleaning and disinfection, For example, it has been proposed to separate the internal conduit with an operating part and expose this separation opening.

FIG. 5 shows a structure proposed by the present applicant, in which the left side of the operation unit 1 is the distal end side of the endoscope,
The cable 2 connected to the processor device or the like is arranged on the lower side. In the operation unit 1, for example, water pipes 3A, 3B
Is provided, and the openings 3E and 3F of the water supply pipes 3A and 3B are provided.
Is arranged so as to be exposed at the center of the receiving portion 4 of the connector. For example, the support portion of the pipeline unit having a suction pipe is connected to the receiving portion 4 leaving the folded space 5 and the supply water passes from the water pipe 3B through the folded space 5 to the water pipe 3A. And sent to the tip. According to such a structure, as shown in the drawing, the openings 3E,
A cleaning brush can be inserted from 3F, and good cleaning of the pipeline is possible.

However, in the conventional endoscope, the above-mentioned water supply pipe or air supply pipe is made of a flexible pipe except for the connecting portion, and when cleaning the inside of the pipe with a cleaning brush, the pipe line bends, There is a problem that it is difficult to wash due to bending (buckling). Further, if an excessive force is applied by the cleaning brush, inconveniences such as disconnection and damage of the flexible tube from the connection portion may occur in some cases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to prevent bending and bending of a pipe line due to insertion of a cleaning brush so that cleaning can be performed favorably and a flexible pipe can be used. An object of the present invention is to provide a pipe line mounting structure for an endoscope that does not come off or break.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve the above object, the pipe mounting structure for an endoscope according to claim 1, in the endoscope to place the flexible tube and the rigid tube inside the upper Symbol soft Cover the outer circumference of the tube with a close contact spring, and attach this soft tube to the rigid tube.
It is characterized in that these pipes are bundled with an exterior member in a combined state . In the invention according to claim 2, the hard tube is operated
It is characterized in that it is attached to a support plate in the section with fixing metal fittings . The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that a suction pipe is provided as the hard pipe and an air supply pipe or a water supply pipe is provided as the soft pipe.

According to the above construction, by disposing the contact spring, the soft tube is firmly maintained in a straight line even when the cleaning brush is inserted, so that the soft tube is prevented from buckling. Further, flue This is flexible tube, in a state where the water pipes or the like and along a suction tube is rigid tube, these bundled taped like package member Runode, straight line soft tube songs rear Bending can be prevented. Moreover, this outer member serves to fix the flexible tube.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1 to 4 show an endoscope pipe mounting structure according to an embodiment. In FIG. 1, an operating portion 10 of the electronic endoscope is connected to a light source device, a processor device, and a solenoid valve unit by a cable 11, and a distal end side (left side in the drawing) of the operating portion 10 has an insertion portion,
A tip having a CCD is provided. Although not shown, inside the endoscope, a light guide is provided from the tip to the light source device, whereby light is emitted from the tip, and a signal line is distributed from the CCD at the tip to the processor device. It is possible to control the CCD and read out the image signal.

Above the operation unit 10, an air / water supply switch unit (two-stage switch) 13 which is an electric switch is provided.
The suction switch section 14 and the photographing button 15 are provided, and the switch sections 13 and 14 control the opening and closing of the pinch valve and the like in the solenoid valve unit to adjust the flow in the pipeline. An angle knob or the like is arranged on the back side of the operation unit 10.

Inside the operation unit 10, a suction pipe 17A made of a hard pipe such as a metal pipe, air pipes 18A, 18B made of a flexible pipe except for a connecting portion, and water pipes 19A (FIG. 4), 19B. Are provided for these pipe lines 17A to 19B.
Is arranged up to the receiving portion 21 of the connector at the rear end portion of the operating portion 10. Here, the suction pipe 17A, the air supply pipe 18A, and the water supply pipe 19A on the front side (tip side) are at least the operation unit 10.
Inside, they are arranged on a straight line. Then, the air pipe 18
A pipe line unit 22 is provided in the operation unit 10 in order to form the folded portions of A, 18B and the water supply pipes 19A, 19B and to connect the suction pipe 17B to the suction pipe 17A.

That is, a male screw is formed on the outer periphery of the receiving portion 21 and the supporting portion 22 of the conduit unit 22 is formed.
An operation ring 23 having a female screw formed on the inner circumference is provided on the A side, and the pipe ring unit 22 is attached to the operation unit 10 by screwing the operation ring 23 to the receiving portion 21. In the conduit unit 22, a suction pipe 17B and a flexible suction pipe 17C connected to the suction pipe 17A are connected.
The flexible suction tube 17C is detachably attached to the support portion 22A. The flexible suction tube 17C
Up to the solenoid valve unit.

In this conduit unit 22, the suction pipe 1
A forceps port 24A is arranged via a branch pipe 24B branched from 7B, and a cap for a plug (not shown) is attached to the forceps port 24A. Therefore, the suction tubes 17A, 1
7B sucks the contents and the like in the body to be observed, and also serves as a treatment tool insertion channel for introducing a treatment tool such as forceps.

FIG. 2 shows the connecting portion between the operating portion 10 and the conduit unit 22, and FIG. 1 is a sectional view taken along the line I--I of FIG. As can be seen from this figure, the suction pipes 17A and 17B are provided with the receiving portion 21 or the supporting portion 2
It is arranged at the center position of the fitting portion of 2A. Further, FIG. 3 shows a cross section taken along line II-II of FIG. 2 and a configuration relating to the air supply pipe, and FIG. 4 shows a cross section taken along line III-III of FIG. .

In FIG. 3, the receiving portion 21 is formed with a folded portion 25 that secures a folded space of the flow passage, and openings 18E and 18F of the front air feeding pipe 18A and the rear air feeding pipe 18B are arranged in this folding portion 25. To be done. On the other hand, on the side of the support portion 22A that holds the operation ring 23, a convex plug member (a packing or the like is arranged) 2 that fits into a part of the folded portion 25.
6 is provided. According to this, by attaching the conduit unit 22, the folded portion 25 of the predetermined flow path space is formed, whereby air is supplied from the rear side air supply pipe 18A to the front side air supply pipe 18A.

The same applies to the water pipe shown in FIG.
As shown in the drawing, the receiving portion 21 is formed with a folded portion 28 of a predetermined flow path space, and the folded portion 28 has separation openings 19E and 1E for the front water pipe 19A and the rear water pipe 19B.
9F is arranged. On the other hand, a convex plug member 29 is provided on the side of the support portion 22A, and in this example, an auxiliary tube for flashing the lens surface from the tip of the plug member 29 toward the rear end of the support portion 22A. 30 are provided. An injection port (not shown) is connected to the auxiliary pipe 30. According to this water supply pipe structure, water is supplied from the rear water supply pipe 19B to the front end through the folded portion 28 and the front water supply pipe 19A, and the injection water is further injected while using a syringe or the like. , The auxiliary pipe 30, and the front side water supply pipe 19A to supply to the tip portion.

Of the conduits of such an endoscope, the front side air supply pipe 18A and the front side water supply pipe 19A, as shown in the respective drawings, are attached to a flexible pipe portion arranged in a straight line, and a contact spring 32 is provided.
Is covered. That is, to explain with the air pipe 18 of FIG.
The flexible air supply pipe 18A is connected to the metal connection pipe 18G, and the contact spring 32 is arranged partway in the air supply pipe 18A so as to cover a part of the connection pipe 18G. The contact spring 32 is set to have a diameter (for example, an inner diameter slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the air supply pipe 18A) that can be fastened and fixed to the connection pipe 18G, and the end portion is bonded by brazing or the like. The same applies to the case of the water supply pipe 19A in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, these air supply pipe 18A and water supply pipe 19A are suction pipes 1 which are hard pipes.
7A, and in the portion where the contact spring 32 is not covered, three tapes are wound together and fixed by tape 33. The suction tube 17A in this case is fixed to the fixing bracket 3
It is attached to the support plate 35 at 4 and fixed. Further, in this example, as shown in FIG. 1, the close contact spring 36 is also applied to the linear portions of the rear air supply pipe 18B and the rear water supply pipe 19B arranged at the connecting portion of the cable 11. This contact spring 36
Is also fixed in the cable 11 so that it does not move on the tube.

The embodiment has the above-described structure, and when the use of the endoscope is finished and the cleaning and sterilization of the conduit is performed, the conduit unit 22 is removed from the operating portion 10 and is shown in FIG. State. Then, the cleaning brush can be inserted into each of the openings 17E, 18E, 18F, 19E, 19F of the receiving portion 21 of the operation portion 10. At this time, the suction tube 17A, which is a rigid tube, has no problem, but the other tubes 18A to
The soft portion of 19B may be bent or bent by the cleaning brush inserted.

However, in this example, as described above, by providing the contact spring 32 and bundling the tape 33 along the suction pipe 17A, the front air supply pipe 18A and the front water supply pipe 19A are provided. Therefore, the flexible portion is maintained straight, and the bending and bending described above do not occur. Further, also in the rear side air supply pipe 18B and the rear side water supply pipe 19B, there is a partially flexible portion between the connecting pipes 18H, 19H of the receiving portion 21 and the straight portion, but this portion is short and the cable 11 Since the contact spring 36 keeps the straight portion of each of the tubes 18B, 18B in the area of (4) straight, bending and bending can be prevented. In addition, this rear side air pipe 18
In the B and rear side water supply pipes 19B, the connection pipes 18H and 19H may be extended to the portion (bent portion) of the cable 11 and configured by a hard pipe.

In the embodiment, the contact spring 32 is provided for the conduit in the operation section 10 and the tape 33 is bundled, but it is preferable to apply this to other portions as well. However, the endoscope insertion part and the cable 11
Then, since the respective pipelines and other members are arranged without a gap, the necessity thereof is not so high.

In the above example, the contact spring 32 and the tape 33 are used in combination, but only the contact spring 32 may be covered with the corresponding soft tube in the operation section 10.
Further, all the pipe lines in the operation unit 10 can be hard pipes like the suction pipe 17A.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Place a contact spring on the outer circumference of the flexible pipe such as the air supply / water supply pipe , and
The soft material of the octopus is placed alongside a hard tube such as a suction tube with an exterior member.
Since they are bundled , bending and bending of the pipe line due to the insertion of the cleaning brush can be prevented, and good cleaning can be performed,
Withdrawal and breakage of the flexible tube can be eliminated and that Do not.

[0024]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line I-I of FIG. 2, showing a pipe line mounting structure of an endoscope according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a connecting portion when the operating portion and the conduit unit of the embodiment are separated, and FIG. 2A is a configuration diagram on the operating portion side.
FIG. 6B is a block diagram of the conduit unit side.

FIG. 3 shows a duct structure of an air supply pipe according to an embodiment, and FIG.
It is a sectional view taken along line II-II.

FIG. 4 shows a pipeline structure of the water supply pipe of the embodiment, and FIG.
It is a sectional view taken along the line III-III.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which the conduit unit is detached and the conduit is cleaned in the same operation unit as in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Operation part, 17A, 17B, 17C ... Suction tube, 18A, 18B ... Air pipe, 19A, 19B ... Water pipes, 22 ... Pipeline unit 22A ... Supporting part, 32, 36 ... Contact spring, 33 ... Tape.

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A endoscope to place soft tube and a rigid tube inside, covered with a contact spring on the outer circumference of the upper Symbol flexible tube, the flexible tube above
Bundle these pipes with the exterior member while keeping them along the rigid pipes.
A structure for attaching a conduit for an endoscope, which is characterized in that 2. The rigid tube is fixed to a support plate inside the operation section.
The conduit attachment structure for an endoscope according to claim 1, wherein the conduit attachment structure is attached by a metal fitting . 3. The conduit attachment structure for an endoscope according to claim 1, wherein a suction pipe is provided as the hard pipe, and an air supply pipe or a water supply pipe is provided as the soft pipe.