Endoscope having image acquisition windows and corresponding cleaning nozzles on front and circumferential surfaces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10799103-B2
Application number	US-201715819498-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2017
Priority date	May 25, 2015
Publication date	Oct 13, 2020
Grant date	Oct 13, 2020

Abstract

An endoscope of the invention includes: an insertion portion; a distal end portion; a pair of first observation image acquiring sections; a second observation image acquiring section; a pair of nozzles, each of which includes a spouting port for spouting fluid toward each of the pair of first observation image acquiring sections; a pair of first protruding portions, each of which is located close to the front surface of the distal end portion and has a maximum dimension in the radial direction larger than a dimension in the radial direction of each of the nozzles, and a pair of second protruding portions, each of which is located farther from the front surface of the distal end portion and has a maximum dimension in the radial direction larger than the dimension in the radial direction of each of the nozzles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An endoscope comprising:
an insertion portion configured to be inserted into an inside of a subject, the insertion portion having a distal end portion disposed on a distal end side of the insertion portion in a direction of a longitudinal axis of the insertion portion;
a pair of first observation image acquiring windows provided on a circumferential surface around the longitudinal axis of the distal end portion, each of the pair of first observation image acquiring windows acquiring a first observation image from a first region of the subject;
a second observation image acquiring window provided on a front surface of the distal end portion, the second observation image acquiring window acquiring a second observation image from a second region of the subject which is different from the first region;
a pair of nozzles, each of the pair of nozzles being provided so as to protrude from the circumferential surface of the distal end portion in a radial direction of the distal end portion, each of the pair of nozzles including a spouting port configured to spout fluid in a direction along the longitudinal axis toward a respective one of the pair of first observation image acquiring windows;
a pair of first protruding portions, each of the pair of first protruding portions being provided so as to protrude from the circumferential surface of the distal end portion in the radial direction of the distal end portion, the pair of first protruding portions being located at a position closer to the front surface of the distal end portion with respect to the pair of first observation image acquiring windows and the pair of nozzles, a maximum dimension in the radial direction of each of the first protruding portions being larger than a dimension in the radial direction of each of the nozzles; and
a pair of second protruding portions, each of the pair of second protruding portions being provided so as to protrude from the circumferential surface of the distal end portion in the radial direction of the distal end portion, the pair of second protruding portions being located at a position farther from the front surface of the distal end portion with respect to the pair of first observation image acquiring windows and the pair of nozzles, a maximum dimension in the radial direction of each of the second protruding portions being larger than the dimension in the radial direction of each of the nozzles.

2. The endoscope according to claim 1 , further comprising
two pairs of illumination windows that illuminate a predetermined region of the subject, each pair of the two pairs of illumination windows being provided on the circumferential surface of the distal end portion along the longitudinal axis direction so as to sandwich each of the pair of first observation image acquiring windows therebetween.

3. The endoscope according to claim 2 , wherein, the circumferential surface of the distal end portion includes in a following alignment order from a distal end side in the longitudinal axis direction of the insertion portion:
one of the pair of the first protruding portions; one of the one pair of illumination windows;
one of the pair of the first observation image acquiring windows; another of the one pair of illumination windows;
one of the pair of nozzles; and
one of the pair of the second protruding portions.

4. The endoscope according to claim 2 , wherein the spouting port is provided in a dimension range smaller than a maximum dimension in the radial direction of the illumination portions protruding in the radial direction of the distal end portion.

5. The endoscope according to claim 1 , wherein the pair of the first observation image acquiring windows, the pair of nozzles, the pair of the first protruding portions, and the pair of the second protruding portions are respectively provided at positions across the longitudinal axis.

6. The endoscope according to claim 1 , wherein a part of the distal end portion is formed to have a diameter thinner than proximal portions of the insertion portion.

7. The endoscope according to claim 6 , wherein each of the nozzles is arranged in a thin diameter part of the distal end portion of the insertion portion.

8. The endoscope according to claim 1 , wherein
each of the pair of first observation image acquiring windows includes a first image pickup section that photoelectrically converts the first observation image, and
the second observation image acquiring window includes a second image pickup section that photoelectrically converts the second observation image, the second image pickup section being different from the first image pickup section.

Assignees

• Olympus Corp

Inventors

• OKANO Hiromasa
• Ito Jin
• Watanabe Takanori
• Hashimoto Kento
• Suzuki Takeo

Classifications

• A61B1/0008

  characterised by distal tip features · CPC title

• A61B1/0684

  using light emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title

• A61B1/00181

  for multiple fixed viewing angles (A61B1/00193 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61B1/126 Primary

  provided with means for cleaning in-use · CPC title

• A61B1/00177

  for 90 degrees side-viewing · CPC title