A61B1/00097

Compact Robotic Endoscope
20230128303 · 2023-04-27 ·

A medical endoscope that has a reusable portion to which either of two different single-use portions can be snapped in by hand to thereby form two different assembled endoscopes. When one of the single-use portions is assembled with the reusable portion, a motor in the reusable portion robotically rotates a cannula about a proximal end of the single use portion. When the other single-use portion is assembled with the reusable portion, the motor robotically angulates the distal end of the cannula. Another medical endoscope is single-use in its entirety and has motor-driven angulation of the cannula's distal end. Another has manually controlled angulation.

Endoscope robot

Endoscope apparatus includes: a tube unit coupled to a rotary shaft to which a rotational force is transmitted so as to be rotatable, the tube unit being formed to extend in one direction; steering unit having one end installed at one end of the tube unit to rotate with respect to the tube unit so that a direction thereof facing forward is adjusted, the steering unit rotating together with the tube unit by the rotational force transmitted from the tube unit; an end effector installed inside the steering unit to rotate together with the steering unit due to the rotation of the steering unit, the end effector being disposed to face forward; and shaft-fixing tube body installed at the end effector, wherein the direction of the steering unit facing forward and relative rotation of the steering unit with respect to the end effector are adjustable.

Endoscope and method of use

An endoscope includes a shaft having proximal and distal ends and a longitudinal axis therebetween. A handle is coupled to the proximal end of the shaft, and an image sensor is carried on the distal end of the shaft. A channel extends through at least a distal shaft portion and has a channel diameter, and a section of the channel is re-configurable between a constricted shape and a non-constricted shape to accommodate tools introduced therethrough. The combined diagonal dimension and channel diameter is usually greater than the outer shaft diameter. The image sensor may be connected to a connector on the housing by a first slack flex circuit and a lights source on the shaft may be connected to a connector on the housing by a second slack flex circuit.

Oral care system

An oral care implement including a handle and an oral care refill head. The handle has a gripping portion, an engagement component coupled to a distal end of the gripping portion, and a stem. The engagement component includes a plate portion and a first engagement feature. The stem extends through an opening in the engagement component and protrudes from the plate portion. The oral care refill head includes an oral care treatment portion and a sleeve portion. The sleeve portion has an inner surface that defines a sleeve cavity having a cavity axis and a second engagement feature. When the oral care refill head is detachably coupled to the handle, the first and second engagement features mate with one another to at least one of: (1) position the oral care refill head and the handle in an operational alignment; and (2) lock the oral care refill head to the handle.

A TIP PART FOR FORMING A TIP OF A DISPOSABLE INSERTION ENDOSCOPE
20230068676 · 2023-03-02 · ·

A tip part (2) for forming a tip of a disposable insertion endoscope (1), the tip part comprising an exterior housing (9) having an open proximal end (9a) for connection to other parts of the endoscope, the housing further having a distal front wall (11) and a circumferential housing wall (12), the circumferential housing wall extending a total housing length H in a proximal direction from the distal front wall to the proximal end of the housing, the distal front wall and the circumferential housing wall enclosing an interior spacing (24) of the tip part; a camera assembly able to provide an image from light received from an object to be investigated; and a tube insertion sleeve (38) provided within the interior spacing and fixed in relation to the distal front wall, the tube insertion sleeve being formed by a circumferential tube sleeve wall (39) that extends a total tube sleeve length S from the distal front wall of the housing to a proximal end of the tube insertion sleeve so that the tube insertion sleeve comprises an open proximal end; wherein the distal front wall has a fluid opening (10, 16a, 16b, 17) which is aligned with a distal end of the tube insertion sleeve, a proximal surface of the distal front wall surrounding the fluid opening to provide a tube abutment surface (40); whereby a tube (13, 21, 22, 23) can be inserted through the proximal end of the tube insertion sleeve until a distal end of the tube abuts the tube abutment surface, whereby the distal end of the tube is positioned to allow fluid flow through the tube to and through the fluid opening. Furthermore a method of manufacture of the tip part is disclosed.

A MODULAR SYSTEM FOR MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE HOMEOSTASIS IN CAVITIES, AND A METHOD FOR GENERATING A VOLUME OF FLUID IN A CAVITY

The system comprises an intracavity device with an insertable portion having on its outer surface a sensor module which comprises at least a sensor of temperature, humidity or both; a second group of sensors comprising at least a volume sensor, a pressure sensor or both, wherein the fluid flows through the volume and/or pressure sensors; a fluid insufflation module; and a monitoring and control of the homeostasis module connected to the sensor module and to the second group of sensors and which comprises a processing unit.

The method comprises insufflating fluid into the cavity, to maintain a working volume and maintain the homeostasis of the cavity in a continuous manner, in particular the distensibility, temperature and humidity.

Endoscope Steering Mechanism with Everted Tube Introducer
20220322920 · 2022-10-13 ·

The present disclosure provides an introducer device including an outer tube defining a first lumen, and an inner tube defining a second lumen, and a sheath coupled thereto. The first end of the inner tube is positioned in the first lumen of the outer tube, and the inner tube is configured to translate within the first lumen in a direction towards the first end of the outer tube from a first position to a second position. The first end of the sheath is coupled to the first end of the outer tube, and the second end of the sheath is coupled to the first end of the inner tube. The introducer device further includes an inlet port in fluid communication with the inner surface of the outer tube, and one or more steering wires coupled to the sheath that are configured to bias a direction of a leading edge of the sheath as the sheath everts from a retracted position to an extended position.

METHOD FOR CALIBRATING ENDOSCOPE AND ENDOSCOPE SYSTEM

The method for calibrating an endoscope is a method for calibrating an endoscope having a curved portion capable of being driven by bending, and includes: an arrangement step of suspending and arranging a distal end portion of the endoscope including the curved portion; a bending step of bending the curved portion of the distal end portion which has been suspended; a measurement step of measuring shape information of the curved portion; and an adjustment step of updating a control parameter by which the endoscope drives the curved portion, based on the shape information which has been measured.

HAND-HELD, ROBOTIC-ASSISTED ENDOSCOPE
20230117151 · 2023-04-20 ·

A compact, hand-held, robotic assisted endoscopic system configured to derive the position and/or orientation CamPose of a distal part of a single-use portion relative to coordinates HandPose of a reusable portion of an endoscope and display juxtaposed images of an object such a patient's organ being diagnosed or treated in a medical procedure with the endoscope and the distal part of the endoscope, and to provide guidance to the system user with display of images such as prior images of the object, standardized images of the object of tutorial images related to the medical procedure.

REAL-TIME REGISTRATION USING NEAR INFRARED FLUORESCENCE IMAGING
20230068745 · 2023-03-02 ·

A system for performing a surgical procedure includes a camera configured to capture real-time near infrared images, an injection system configured to inject a fluorescent dye into a patient's blood stream, and a workstation operably coupled to the camera for retrieving a three-dimensional (3D) model of the patient's anatomy based on pre-procedure images, retrieve an indication of a targeted critical structure within the 3D model, observe, using the captured real-time near infrared images, perfusion of the fluorescent dye through tissue to identify critical structures illuminated by near-infrared light, and register the real-time near-infrared images to the 3D model using the identified illuminated targeted critical structure in the real-time near infrared images captured by the camera and the identified targeted critical structure in the 3D model as a landmark.