Patent ID: 6217510
Filing Date: 2001-04-17
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
An endoscope comprising:an illumination window which illuminates a white light or fluorescent excitation light from the tip plane of an insertion part which is inserted into a body cavity;observation windows which are provided at the tip plane of said insertion part and next to said illumination window, and where white light reflected images and fluorescent images, respectively, are received;an opening end of an instrument channel which is provided at the tip plane of said insertion part; andimaging means which images said white light reflected images and said fluorescent images which are received from said observation windows in an orientation where images of said observation windows are disposed in the same direction, wherein said observation windows are composed of a first observation window where said white light reflected images are received having a vertical direction, and a second observation window where received are said fluorescent images which have substantially the same vertical direction as said white light reflected image;said opening end has its center which is disposed at the position which is defined by:a first axis which goes through the vertical direction line of said white light reflected images which are received from said first observation window and also the center of said first observation window,a second axis which goes through the vertical direction line of said fluorescent images which is received from said second observation window and also the center of said second observation window,third axis which goes through the center of said first observation window and crosses at right angles with said first axis, anda fourth axis which goes through the center of said second observation window and crosses at right angles with said second axis;and further wherein said opening end has its center positioned within an area of the tip plane that is not in the area defined by the area between the first and second axes or the area between the third and fourth axes.