Patent ID: 6582363
Filing Date: 2003-06-24
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
An illumination optical system comprising:a light guide that has a fiber bundle for emitting a light beam incident upon its proximal end face through its distal end face; a visible lamp for generating visible light; a first optical system for forming the visible light generated by the visible lamp into a collimated light beam; an excitation lamp for generating excitation light that excites living tissue to cause fluorescence; a second optical system for forming excitation light generated by the excitation light lamp into a collimated light beam whose diameter is smaller than that of the collimated light beam of the visible light formed by the first optical system; a switching mechanism that alternately guides the visible light formed into the collimated light beam by the first optical system and the excitation light formed into the collimated light beam by the second optical system to a common optical path; and a condenser optical system that converges the visible light and the excitation light guided by the switching mechanism to the common optical path onto the proximal end face of said fiber bundle.