Endocranial endoscope

Inventors

Huang, Po-Hao • Lin, Sheng-Chi • Chang, Feng-Cheng

Assignees

Clearmind Biomedical Inc

Abstract

An endoscope particularly suited for endocranial procedures and a method of using the endoscope. In some examples the endoscope is rigid except for a bend/tilt portion near a distal end of a rigid tube that is inserted in a patient's cranium, which distal end is controlled in a degree and direction of tilt with a finger operated controller at the endoscope's handle. Some examples use telescoping tubes that allow customizing the endoscope size for specific procedures. A distal portion of the endoscope can be disposable, supplied in a sterile package for a single procedure, thus taking into account contamination dangers that are particularly high for intracranial and certain other interventions and the fact that it can be difficult or impossible to effectively autoclave heat-sensitive components of certain endoscopes or effectively sterilize them using other techniques.

Core Innovation

The invention is an endocranial endoscope having an internally threaded, rigid outer tube and an externally threaded, rigid middle tube that telescope between extended and retracted positions. A sleeve protrudes distally from the middle tube, and a stopper at a distal portion of the sleeve is mounted to move relative to the middle tube while a biasing element biases the stopper toward the distal direction.

The endoscope includes an inner tube having a proximal portion partly in the sleeve and a distal portion shaped, dimensioned, and configured for insertion into a patient's cranium. The inner tube includes a bend/tilt portion adjacent a distal end thereof, with extended and retracted positions relative to the middle tube, and a suction/irrigation tube slides within the inner tube between an extended position that protrudes distally from the inner tube and a retracted position.

At the distal end of the inner tube, an imaging module and an illumination module are provided so that the illumination module illuminates a field of view inside the patient's cranium and the imaging module takes and supplies images of the field of view for display to a user. A handle is configured to be grasped by a user's hand and has a distal portion coupled to the proximal portion of the outer tube and a proximal portion including a suction port coupler and an irrigation port coupler.

The handle further includes finger-operated suction and irrigation controllers to control flow between the suction/irrigation tube and the suction and irrigation ports, respectively, a finger-operated tilt/bend controller operatively associated with the tilt/bend portion of the inner tube, and a finger-operated extension-retraction controller operatively associated with the suction/irrigation tube to control a degree by which a distal end of the suction/irrigation tube protrudes distally from the inner tube.

Claims Coverage

The patent includes two independent claims: clm-00001 and clm-00009. Across these independent claims, the coverage is grounded by five inventive features: a telescoping rigid outer/middle tube system with a sleeve, a biased distal stopper, an inner tube with a bend/tilt portion configured for insertion into a patient's cranium, a sliding suction/irrigation tube, and distal imaging and illumination modules with handle-based finger controls.

Across clm-00001 and clm-00009, the claim coverage is centered on a telescoping rigid outer/middle tube arrangement with a sleeve and biased distal stopper, an inner tube configured for insertion into a patient's cranium and including a bend/tilt portion, a suction/irrigation tube that moves between extended and retracted positions, and distal imaging and illumination modules supplying images for display. The handle-based finger-operated controls provide suction/irrigation flow control, tilt/bend control, and extension-retraction control of the suction/irrigation tube.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications