JP2005323681A - Observing device for inside of body cavity - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an observing device for the inside of a body cavity which can reduce the number of operators. <P>SOLUTION: A marker M having a totally different color from the body color is attached to a forceps section 34 of a treating instrument 12. Then, in an image process by a marker tracking control section 90, the position of the marker M is detected by a marker position detecting section 84. Then, the image is trimmed at a specified region by a trimming section 86 in such a manner that the marker M may be located at the center of the image. Then, the image region is magnified by a specified magnification, and is displayed on a monitor 20 by an expanding section 88. By this image process, the image of an area which really needs to be observed can greatly be displayed on the monitor 20, and therefore, the number of operators can be reduced without causing clinical inconveniences. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a body cavity observation apparatus, and more particularly to a body cavity observation apparatus that performs various treatments while displaying the inside of a body cavity of a subject.

  A laparoscopic device, which is an intra-body cavity observation device, punctures a trocar (insertion tool) into the body cavity from the surface of the patient's abdomen, and then inserts the insertion part of the laparoscope into the body cavity using this trocar as a guide. This is a device that performs various treatments such as adhesion therapy while monitoring the presence or absence of ovarian tumors, uterine fibroids, etc. Further, the laparoscope is held by a movable holder attached to a fixed portion during clinical practice and is maintained in a fixed state (for example, Patent Document 1).

By the way, at the time of clinical use with a laparoscopic device, treatment is usually performed by opening three to four holes in the abdomen and inserting a plurality of treatment tools through these holes through trocars. Further, the operator who operates the treatment tool operates the treatment tool while observing the observation object image of the monitor obtained by the laparoscope. For this reason, according to the instruction | indication of the operator who operates a treatment tool, the position of a laparoscope is changed each time and the imaging position of a to-be-observed body is changed. That is, at the time of clinical use with a laparoscopic device, in addition to one or two surgeons who operate the treatment tool, an operator who changes the position of the laparoscope, and one or two surgeons who assist the entire clinic are involved. .
JP 2003-265402 A

  However, in the conventional laparoscopic apparatus, there are 4 to 5 surgeons engaged in clinical practice, and it has been desired to reduce the number of surgeons.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an intra-body-cavity observation apparatus that can reduce the number of operators.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, the treatment tool is inserted into the body cavity of the subject using the insertion tool as a guide, and is fixed to the body wall opening of the subject and observed. Among the images showing the inside of the body cavity imaged by the observation unit provided with the optical system, the monitor for displaying the inside of the body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the observation unit, and the observation optical system of the observation unit And an image area selection / enlargement display means for selecting and enlarging and displaying a necessary image area.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the observation unit having the observation optical system is fixed to the body wall opening of the subject, and the in-vivo image captured by the observation optical system of the observation unit is displayed on the monitor. As the observation optical system of the observation unit, since the observation unit is fixed to the opening of the body wall, it is necessary to look around the entire body cavity, and an observation optical system having a wide observation field of view is used. However, when the entire area of the imaging area imaged by the observation optical system having a wide observation field is displayed on the monitor, there is a problem that the image of the part that is actually desired to be observed becomes small. In order to solve this problem, the present invention has an image area selection / enlargement display means for selecting and enlarging and displaying a necessary image area among images taken by the observation optical system of the observation unit. Thereby, since a necessary image is enlarged and displayed on the monitor, an operator who changes the position of the observation unit in order to obtain the necessary image, that is, an operator who operates a conventional laparoscope becomes unnecessary. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the number of operators without causing clinical inconvenience.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the intra-body-cavity observation device according to the first aspect, the image area selection / enlargement display means is a marker unit attached to the treatment instrument or the insertion tool from an image captured by the observation unit. A marker position detecting unit for detecting the position of the image, a trimming unit for trimming the image into a predetermined region so that the marker unit is positioned at the center of the image, and displaying the trimmed image region at a predetermined magnification on the monitor And an enlarged portion.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, for example, a marker having a color completely different from the body color is attached to the distal end of the treatment tool or the insertion tool, which corresponds to the part that is actually desired to be observed, and the marker position detection unit performs the marker in image processing. The image is trimmed into a predetermined area so that the marker is located at the center of the image, and the image area is enlarged and displayed on the monitor at a predetermined magnification by the enlargement means. By such image processing, it is possible to easily enlarge and display an image of a part that is actually desired to be observed without requiring human intervention.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a treatment instrument that is inserted into a body cavity of a subject using an insertion tool as a guide, and a laparoscope that is inserted into a body wall opening of the subject and provided with an observation optical system And a monitor for displaying the inside of the body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the laparoscope, and selecting a necessary image region from among images showing the inside of the body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the laparoscope And an image area selection / enlargement display means for enlarging display. According to the invention described in claim 3, a laparoscope is used instead of the observation unit.

  According to the in-vivo observation device according to the present invention, the observation unit having the observation optical system is fixed to the opening of the body wall, the in-vivo image captured by the observation optical system of the observation unit is displayed on the monitor, and the image region Since the necessary image area is selected and enlarged by the selective enlargement display means, the number of operators can be reduced without causing any clinical inconvenience.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of an in-vivo observation device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of an in-vivo observation device 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a clinical situation by the in-body-cavity observation device 10.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the intra-body-cavity observation apparatus 10 includes a treatment instrument 12, a trocar (insertion tool) 14, an observation unit 16, a video signal processor 18, a monitor 20, and the like.

  The treatment instrument 12 treats an affected area in the body cavity 26 of the subject 24 who is laid down on the operating table 22, and is provided with an operation unit 30 operated by the operator 28. Further, the treatment instrument 12 has an insertion portion 32 connected to the distal end of the operation portion 30, and a forceps portion 34 is provided at the distal end of the insertion portion 32.

  The insertion portion 32 of the treatment instrument 12 is inserted into the body cavity 26 with the trocar 14 punctured from the surface of the abdomen 42 of the subject 24 as a guide as shown in FIG. The trocar 14 includes a metallic hollow tube 44 having a sharp tip formed at a tip thereof, and a soft grip tube 46 provided at the proximal end of the hollow tube 44. In the trocar 14 configured as described above, the operator 28 grasps the grasping tube 46, and the hollow tube 44 is inserted into the body cavity 26 by puncturing the abdomen 42 with the sharp tip of the hollow tube 44 at the head. Is done.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the observation unit 16 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and is fixed to an opening 43 that is widened by excising the abdomen 42 in the vicinity of the puncture position of the trocar 14. The observation unit 16 includes a unit main body 48 formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and a nut portion 50 that is screwed into the male screw portion 49 of the unit main body 48 and clamps the abdominal wall (abdominal skin) between the unit main body 48. Is done. The observation unit 16 is fixed to the opening 43 by this clamping pressure holding.

  The unit main body 48 includes a plurality of light emitting diodes 52, a battery 54, an observation optical system 60 including a lens 56 and a CCD 58, and a video signal transmission unit 62 that transmits a video signal wirelessly. The LEDs 52, 52... Are arranged at equal intervals on the same circumference around the central axis of the unit body 48. A storage recess 64 for storing the LED 52 is sealed by a plate 66 such as a transparent plate or a diffuser plate. Further, the observation optical system 60 is arranged so that its optical axis matches the central axis of the unit main body 48. A transparent plate 68 is disposed in front of the lens 56 of the observation optical system 60, and the housing recess 70 of the observation optical system 60 is sealed by the transparent plate 68.

  The battery 54 is a button battery in consideration of small size and light weight. The battery 54 is replaced with a new battery 54 by removing a cap 72 that is detachably attached to the upper surface of the unit main body 48. As shown in FIG. 3, the battery 54 supplies power to the LED 52, the CCD 58, and the video signal transmission unit 62, and also supplies power to a video signal processing unit 74 that processes an output signal from the CCD 58 into a video signal. The video signal processing unit 74 is also built in the unit main body 48 shown in FIG.

  According to the observation unit 16 configured as described above, the observation object 36 is illuminated by the LEDs 52, 52..., And an optical image of the observation object is formed on the CCD 58 via the lens 56. The output signal from the CCD 58 is processed into a video signal by the video signal processing unit 74 and then transmitted from the antenna 76 of the video signal transmission unit 62 to the video signal processor 18 shown in FIG. That is, the observation unit 16 has a function of transmitting illumination, imaging, and video signals by the built-in battery 54.

  The video signal transmitted to the video signal processor 18 is received by the antenna 80 of the video signal receiving unit 78 as shown in FIG. The received video signal is corrected for distortion characteristics of the lens 56 by the distortion correction control unit 82. The video signal whose distortion characteristics have been corrected is output to a marker tracking control unit (image area selection enlargement display means) 90 including a marker position detection unit 84, a trimming unit 86, and an enlargement unit 88.

  Here, the marker tracking control unit 90 will be described.

  As the observation optical system 60 of the observation unit 16 shown in FIG. 2, the observation optical system 60 is fixed to the body wall opening 43, so that the observation optical system 60 has a wide observation field in which the entire body cavity 26 can be seen. However, when the entire area of the imaging area imaged by the observation optical system 60 with a wide observation field of view (for example, a viewing angle of 170 °) is displayed on the monitor 20, the region of the treatment instrument or the portion of the trocar 14 that is actually desired to be observed is observed. There is a problem that the image becomes smaller.

  In order to eliminate this problem, a marker M having a color (for example, blue) completely different from the body color is attached to the forceps 34 of the treatment instrument 12 as shown in FIG. In the image processing by the marker tracking control unit 90, the marker position detection unit 84 in FIG. 3 detects the position of the marker M. Next, the trimming unit 86 trims the image into a predetermined region so that the marker M is positioned at the center of the image. Next, the image area is enlarged and displayed on the monitor 20 at a predetermined magnification by the enlargement unit 88. The enlargement magnification is adjusted by operating the magnification adjustment knob 19 of the video signal processor 18. By such image processing, an image of a part that is actually desired to be observed can be displayed largely on the monitor 20, so that the above-described problems when using an observation optical system with a wide observation field of view can be solved. That is, since the observation unit can be used in a state of being fixed to the body wall opening 43 without any operation by the operator, the number of operators can be reduced without clinical inconvenience. Even if the position of the marker M changes due to the operation of the treatment instrument 12, the marker M is always tracked by the marker position detector 84, so that the image near the marker M can be always enlarged and observed. The marker M may be attached to the tip of the trocar 14.

  The video signal processor 18 of the embodiment has a changeover switch 92. This change-over switch 92 selectively switches one video signal out of the video signal output to the monitor 20 from the video signal whose distortion characteristics have been corrected or the video signal expanded by automatically tracking the marker M. It is. When switched to the latter, an image in the vicinity of the marker M can be magnified and observed on the monitor 20, and when switched to the former, the entire imaging region captured by the observation optical system 60 with a wide observation field of view can be observed. The area can be observed on the monitor 20. This is convenient when the position of the forceps 34 of the treatment instrument 12 in the entire body cavity 26 is grasped.

  According to the body cavity observation apparatus 10 configured as described above, the observation unit 16 having the LED 52, the battery 54, the observation optical system 60, and the video signal transmission unit 62 is fixed to the body wall opening 43. The video signal of the image inside the body cavity 26 imaged by the observation optical system 60 is transmitted by radio to the video signal processor 18 on the monitor 20 side by the video signal transmission unit 62. This eliminates the need for an operator who operates the observation unit 16, that is, an operator who operates a conventional laparoscope. Further, since the observation unit 16 drives the LED 52 by the built-in battery 54, a light guide cable is unnecessary, and further, a video signal picked up by the observation unit 16 is transmitted wirelessly, so that a transmission cable is unnecessary. Therefore, according to the intra-body-cavity observation apparatus 10 of the embodiment, the number of operators can be reduced without causing clinical inconvenience, and the number of cables routed around the operating table 22 can be reduced.

  Moreover, in embodiment, since LED52 was used as the illumination part 16 of the observation unit 16, it can reduce in size rather than the illumination part which uses a light bulb, and the observation unit 16 becomes compact. Therefore, the small and light observation unit 16 fixed to the body wall opening 43 can be provided. Moreover, since the calorific value is also lower than that of the light bulb, the influence of heat generation can be prevented. Although the emission color of the LED 52 is not particularly limited, the color of the marker M described above is selected to be different from the emission color of the LED 52 in order to correctly detect the marker M. For example, when the emission color of the LED 52 is red, the color of the marker M may be selected as blue.

  In the embodiment, the marker tracking control unit 90 is exemplified as the image area selection enlargement display unit. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, according to the line-of-sight input system 100 shown in FIG. 4, the eyeball image of the operator 28 is captured by the infrared camera (eye monitor) 102, and at the same time, the infrared rays of the operator 28 are excellent (such as a weak laser). Read the corneal reflection point. Then, based on the information, the direction of the line of sight of the operator 28 is converted, and the distance of the operator 28 and the monitor 20 is taken into consideration, and the position of the currently watched image is detected by the detector 104. Thereafter, the image is trimmed so that the currently watched image position is located at the center of the image, and the image area is enlarged and displayed on the monitor 20 at a predetermined magnification. Thereby, it is possible to enlarge and display an image of the object to be observed that is actually desired to be observed without attaching a marker to the treatment instrument 12 or the trocar 14.

  In the intra-body-cavity observation apparatus 10 according to the embodiment, the observation unit 16 fixed to the body wall opening 43 has been described. Instead of the observation unit 16, a laparoscope having a trocar 14 and an observation optical system as shown in FIG. 110 may be used. When the laparoscopic device is rigid, the viewing direction is conventionally changed by tilting the laparoscope in the trocar or tilting the trocar with respect to the abdominal wall. However, the gap between the trocar and the laparoscope is small, and the trocar and the abdominal wall are in close contact with each other, so it is difficult to direct the field of view in the necessary direction. Therefore, if the present invention is used, it is not necessary to move the laparoscope while it is inserted into the trocar, and a necessary visual field direction and magnified image can be obtained.

  In the embodiment, the intracorporeal observation apparatus 10 has been described. However, the observation unit 16 of the embodiment can also be applied to a thoracoscopic apparatus.

System configuration diagram of a body cavity observation apparatus having an observation unit in which an observation optical system is integrated Explanatory drawing which shows the clinical situation by the body cavity observation apparatus shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the structure of the body cavity observation apparatus shown in FIG. Gaze input system configuration diagram Explanatory drawing showing the usage state of the laparoscope

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Body cavity observation apparatus, 12 ... Treatment tool, 14 ... Tracar, 16 ... Observation unit, 18 ... Video signal processor, 20 ... Monitor, 26 ... Body cavity, 48 ... Unit main body, 52 ... LED, 54 ... Battery, 58 ... CCD, 60 ... Observation optical system, 62 ... Video signal transmitter, 74 ... Video signal processor, 100 ... Line-of-sight input system

Claims (3)

A treatment instrument that is inserted into the body cavity of the subject using the insertion tool as a guide;
An observation unit fixed to the body wall opening of the subject and provided with an observation optical system;
A monitor for displaying the inside of the body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the observation unit;
Image area selection enlarged display means for selecting and enlarging and displaying a necessary image area among images showing the inside of a body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the observation unit;
A body cavity observation device comprising: The image area selection enlarged display means
A marker position detection unit that detects a position of the marker unit attached to the treatment tool or the insertion tool from an image captured by the observation unit;
A trimming unit for trimming an image into a predetermined region so that the marker unit is located at the center of the image;
An enlargement unit that enlarges and displays the trimmed image area at a predetermined magnification on the monitor;
The intra-body-cavity observation apparatus according to claim 1, comprising: A treatment instrument that is inserted into the body cavity of the subject using the insertion tool as a guide;
A laparoscope inserted into the body wall opening of the subject and provided with an observation optical system;
A monitor for displaying the inside of the body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the laparoscope;
Image area selection enlargement display means for selecting and enlarging a necessary image area from among images showing the inside of a body cavity imaged by the observation optical system of the laparoscope;
A body cavity observation device comprising:

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