Flexible endoscope permitting gas sterilisation of outer tube - has coupling between latter and inner light conductor incorporated in head piece

摘要

The flexible endoscope has an outer tube (1) surrounding the light conductor (2) which can easily be extracted from and reinserted into the outer tube. This is effected by attaching the light conductor to the outer tube via a coupling (3) incorporated in the headpiece (4) positioned between the outer tube and the eyepiece (5). The light conductor may be surrounded by a rigid tube (6) between this coupling and the eyepiece. The endoscope is designed to allow the outer tube to be sterilised via gas sterilisation before fitting it to the remaining components. A number of outer tubes can be used for the same endoscope fittings, so that the number of complete endoscopes required to allow time for the gas sterilisation is reduced.