ENDOSCOPE USED ALONG WITH DISPOSABLE SHEATH

摘要

PURPOSE: To provide an endosope having a longitudinal groove which accepts a channel of a disposable sheath and a uniform control characteristic in all directions, by connecting a braided tube to a D-shaped cylindrical part and by forming a longitudinal groove on the opposite side in the diameter direction to the D-shaped tube in the braided tube. CONSTITUTION: An optical part of an endoscope illustrated as a pair of aligned optical fiber 90 and a lighting optical fiber 92 extends through a D-shaped flexible tube 94. The D-shaped tube 94 is placed inside a lower part of a braided wire or a meesh tube 120. A slender groove 122 is formed in the upper part of the braided tube 120, and the tube 120 is coated with an appropriate polymer coating 124 so as to seal the braided tube against moisture and to adjust flexibility of the endoscope. The bottom of the groove 122 contacts with an upper surface of the D-shape tube 94. Tubes 134-140 stabilize the shapes of the endoscope and the groove 122 against bending (the vertical direction in the figure) of the endoscope in the plane of the groove 122. The D-shaped tube 94 stabilizes the shapes of the endoscope and the groove 122 against bending in the transverse direction to the plane of the groove.