Surgery – Endoscope – With chair – table – holder – or other support
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-17
2002-06-04
Leubecker, John P. (Department: 3739)
Surgery
Endoscope
With chair, table, holder, or other support
C600S160000, C600S178000, C359S385000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06398721
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 11-041806, filed Feb. 19, 1999; No. 11-089399, filed Mar. 30, 1999; and No. 2000-018865, filed Jan. 27, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a microscope apparatus for performing surgery also using an endoscope.
In recent years, microsurgery which is surgery of a small affected part has been developed and widely used. Therefore, microsurgery has frequently been performed in a variety of medical fields, such as the neurosurgery, otolaryngology and ophthalmology. The microsurgery is performed while observation using a surgery microscope is being performed. In particular, non-invasive surgery has been performed to permit quick rehabilitation after the surgery. In particular, attention is being paid to surgery also using a so-called endoscope for observing a portion (a dead zone) which is invisible during observation using the conventional microscope for surgery.
When a portion to be operated is observed with an endoscope in the neurosurgery, the direction of observation with the endoscope must easily be recognized by an operator.
Moreover, low invasion is required to satisfactorily prevent pressing of the portion in the vicinity of the operated portion when the endoscope is operated. Therefore, when the endoscope is operated while observation is being performed with the microscope for surgery, the operation must be performed such that the position into which the endoscope has been inserted is always confirmed.
There are systems of a type with which an image observed with an endoscope is also displayed in a field of view of a surgical microscope. The systems are disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-333047, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-261094, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 62-166310, U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,549 and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-131455. The surgical microscope disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-333047 has a structure that an image observed with an endoscope is simultaneously displayed in an upper region of an image observed with a microscope.
The endoscope for use in the conventional surgical microscope is arranged to illuminate a portion observed with the endoscope or a portion taken by a solid-state image sensing device. To perform illumination, a special light source unit disposed individually supplies light to the endoscope through a light guide fiber.
A surgical microscope for use in an ophthalmic surgery is known which has a structure as disclosed in Jpn. UM. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 4-83223. That is, a light source provided in a frame for a surgical microscope supplies light to a probe for illuminating the inside portion of the eye so that the inside portion of the eye is illuminated.
The conventional system disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 10-333047, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 7-261094 and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 62-166310 must have the special light source for the endoscope. Therefore, the cost of the endoscope system cannot be reduced. Moreover, a carrier, such as a cart, is required to mount the light source in the operation room. Thus, the usable space in the operation room is undesirably reduced. Since the light source unit cannot be sterilized, the light source unit must be disposed sufficiently apart from the portion to be operated. Hence it follows that a long light guide fiber for connecting the endoscope and the light source to each other is required. Moreover, the deadweight of the light guide fiber and insufficient flexibility of the same inhibit a smooth operation using the endoscope. As a result, there arises a problem in that the endoscope cannot smoothly be moved during the operation.
The apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,549 is arranged to adjust a direction of observation using a hard scope. Thus, undesirable introduction of the distal end of the hard scope into the shadow of an organization, such as the blood vessel or the nerve, is prevented. At this time, the direction of the diagonal observation in the observation field of view of the microscope cannot easily be detected. Thus, there arises a problem in that the orientation of the observation, such as the direction of observation with the hard scope with respect to the observation field of view of the microscope, cannot be recognized.
The invention disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-131455 incorporates a hard scope integrally joined to a surgical microscope body. Moreover, a focal-plane plate is provided which has an index (an arrow) formed at an intermediate image forming point of the microscope by stamping. The hard scope and the focal-plane plate are connected to each other through gears, the reduction ratio of which is 1:1. Thus, the focal-plane plate can be rotated to correspond to the rotation with respect to the observation optical axis for changing the diagonal observation of the hard scope. As a result, the direction of observation with the hard scope with respect to the observation field view of the microscope can be detected. However, selection of a variety of hard scopes is inhibited which are different in the size and the oblique observation angles to correspond to the size of a cut portion of the operated portion and a required direction of observation with respect to the direction in which the hard scope is inserted. What is worse, insertion of the hard scope from an arbitrary direction into the portion to be operated in the observation field of view of the microscope is not permitted.
The surgical microscope disclosed in Jpn. UM. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 4-83223 has the structure that the light source for the surgical microscope supplies light to the probe for the inside portion of the eye. Therefore, any special light source is not required. Light for the surgical microscope and light for the probe for the inside portion of the eye are supplied from one light source by switching light from the light source lamp. Therefore, the surgical microscope and the probe for the inside portion of the eye cannot simultaneously be illuminated. As a result, required observation cannot be performed.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus by improving a conventional surgical microscope so as to enhance the surgery efficiency.
Specifically, an object of the present invention is to provide a surgical microscope apparatus which is capable of eliminating complex routing of a long cable of an auxiliary observation unit to perform microsurgery which also uses the auxiliary observation unit.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a surgical microscope with which sterilization in the vicinity of the microscope can reliably be realized when the auxiliary observation unit is used in the vicinity of the microscope.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low-cost system which enables simultaneous illumination and observation of both of a surgical microscope and an endoscope to be performed when surgery also using the endoscope is performed to improve the operability of the endoscope and provides a sufficiently large space for an operator and satisfactory large spatial margin in the operation room.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hard scope to be inserted into the body cavity to enable a surgeon to observe an object in the cavity through a surgical microscope, in a predetermined angular direction in a plane perpendicular to a line along which the hard scope is inserted, and to understand easily the direction of observation in the observation field of surgical microscope.
To achieve the foregoing objects, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical microscope apparatus comprising: a frame portion placed on a floor; a surgical microscope bo
Akui Nobuaki
Fukaya Takashi
Imagawa Kyo
Karasawa Hitoshi
Kishioka Shigeyasu
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Leubecker John P.
Olympus Optical Co,. Ltd.
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