Patent Publication Number: US-2017351075-A1

Title: Adjustable light source device for a stereoscopic surgical microscope

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a light source device, and more particularly to an adjustable light source device for a stereoscopic surgical microscope that can provide light sources of different wavelengths to enable the stereoscopic surgical microscope to capture clearer images, can enable users to see the tissue disease and the structure of blood vessels clearly to analyze the lesion accurately and to reduce the probability of cutting the blood vessels or nerves during surgery, and can be applied to various surgical divisions without purchasing a variety of light source devices of different wavelengths. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     With the rapid development of technology, there is significant progress in medical technology, and a 3D stereoscopic image technology is a very popular topic in the medical technology and can be applied in the clinical surgery. Then, the doctors can cut, remove or treat organs or tissues of complex and varied thicknesses, and this is a great help for the inspection and treatment of diseases. So the doctors can perform surgery more easily and accurately to significantly enhance the quality of medical treatment. Therefore, various types of 3D stereoscopic surgical microscopes are presented in the market currently. 
     A conventional 3D stereoscopic surgical microscope such as Leica UTL 500 can provide 3D images to the doctors for surgery or treatment, but a light source device of the conventional 3D stereoscopic surgical microscope uses a visible light or a light with a single wavelength for certain divisions such as neurosurgery, etc. As the visible light or the light with a single wavelength can only enable the conventional 3D stereoscopic surgical microscope to obtain a 3D image at a specific position of a human body and cannot provide a clear 3D image of the tissue disease and the structure of blood vessels at some positions of the human body, this will influence the fluency and efficiency of surgery and cannot provide a preferred medical effect to the patient. In addition, different surgical divisions must buy light source devices of different wavelengths to use, and this will relatively limit the practicability of the conventional 3D stereoscopic surgical microscope. 
     To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides an adjustable light source device for a stereoscopic surgical microscope to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The main objective of the present invention is to provide an adjustable light source device for a stereoscopic surgical microscope that can provide light sources of different wavelengths to enable the stereoscopic surgical microscope to capture clearer images, can enable users to see the tissue disease and the structure of blood vessels clearly to analyze the lesion accurately and to reduce the probability of cutting the blood vessels or nerves during surgery, and can be applied to various surgical divisions without the need to purchase a variety of light source devices of different wavelengths. 
     The adjustable light source device for a stereoscopic surgical microscope in accordance with the present invention has a circuit hoard and multiple light sources. The circuit board is mounted in an outer casing of the stereoscopic surgical microscope and is electrically connected to a host computer of the stereoscopic surgical microscope. The light sources are electrically mounted on the circuit board at spaced intervals around two objective lenses of the stereoscopic surgical microscope and extend out of the outer casing. Each one of the light sources has a wavelength different from wavelengths of the other light sources and emits light under control by an operating set of the stereoscopic surgical microscope via a program processing interface of the host computer sending signals to the circuit board. The adjustable light source device can emit lights with different wavelengths to enable the stereoscopic surgical microscope to capture clearer images for various surgical divisions. 
     Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an adjustable light source device for a stereoscopic surgical microscope in accordance with the present invention, mounted on a stereoscopic surgical microscope; 
         FIG. 2  is an enlarged perspective view of the adjustable light source device in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is an enlarged bottom view of the adjustable light source device in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 4  is an enlarged bottom view of a first arrangement of the adjustable light source device in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of the adjustable light source device in  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a wavelength distribution diagram of different lights in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 7  is an enlarged bottom view of a second arrangement of the adjustable light source device in  FIG. 2 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference to  FIGS. 1 to 3 and 5 , an adjustable light source device  10  in accordance with the present invention is mounted on a stereoscopic surgical microscope  30  and has a circuit board  11  and multiple light sources  12 . 
     The stereoscopic surgical microscope  30  has a body  31 , a robot set  32 , an image set  33 , and an operating set  34 . The body  31  has a host computer  311 . The host computer  311  is mounted in the body  31  and has a program processing interface. The robot set  32  is securely connected to the body  31  and has a rotating arm  321 . The rotating arm  321  is rotatably connected to the body  31 . 
     The image set  33  is securely connected to the rotating arm  321 , is electrically connected to the body  31 , and has an outer casing  331  and two objective lenses  332 . The outer casing  331  is securely connected to the rotating arm  321 . The two objective lenses  332  are mounted in the outer casing  331  at a spaced interval, are electrically connected to the host computer  311 , and each one of the objective lenses  332  has a filter mounted in the objective lens  332 . The filter can provide a narrow beam image to the corresponding objective lens  332  to enable a light source with a specific wavelength to pass through the filter. The operating set  34  is connected to the robot set  32  and is electrically connected to the body  31  and the image set  33 . 
     With further reference to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , in a first arrangement of the adjustable light source device  10  in accordance with the present invention, the adjustable light device  10  is securely mounted on the image set  33  of the stereoscopic surgical microscope  30 . 
     The circuit board  11  is mounted in the outer casing  331  below the two objective lenses  332 , is electrically connected to the host computer  311  and has a front side, a rear side, a middle, and a through hole  111 . The through hole  111  may be rectangular and is formed through the rear side and the front side of the circuit board  11  at the middle of the circuit board  11  to enable the two objective lenses  332  to extend through the circuit board  11 . 
     The light sources  12  are electrically mounted on the front side of the circuit board  11  at spaced intervals around the two objective lenses  332  and extend out of the outer casing  331 . Preferably, the adjustable light source device  10  has sixteen light sources  12  mounted on the circuit board  11  at spaced intervals around the through hole  111  of the circuit board  11 . In addition, each one of the light sources  12  is a light-emitting diode (LED). 
     Furthermore, with reference to  FIG. 6 , the light sources  12  of the adjustable light source device  10  of the present invention can provide four different wavelengths, respectively blue light, green light, white light, and infrared light. A wavelength of the blue light is 415 nanometers, a wavelength of the green light is 540 nanometers, a wavelength of the white light is from 445 to 475 nanometers, and a wavelength of the red light is 850 nanometers. The light sources  12  with four different wavelengths are mounted on the circuit board  11  at spaced intervals according to a sequence of blue light, green light, white light, and infrared light. When the wavelength of light is longer, the light has a higher penetration, which means lights of different wavelengths have different penetration depths, wherein the infrared light penetrates the deepest, followed by the green light, and the blue light is the most shallow. Furthermore, when the blue light is used with the green light, the blue-green light allows each one of the objective lenses  332  to form a narrow beam image (NBI), and the infrared light is used to irradiate on the blood vessels to enable the blood vessels to form a black image, and the blood vessels may be effectively highlighted on the image, and the white light is used to provide an auxiliary lighting function. Additionally, with reference to  FIG. 7 , in a second arrangement of the adjustable light source device  10  in accordance with the present invention, the light sources  12  with the same wavelength are mounted on a same side of the circuit board  11  at spaced intervals. 
     In use, with reference to  FIGS. 1 and 5 , when a doctor wants to perform surgery or treatment on organs or tissues of a human body by the stereoscopic surgical microscope  30 , the body  31  of the stereoscopic surgical microscope  30  is moved close to the human body to enable the two objective lenses  332  of the image set  33  that is mounted on the rotating arm  321  to move over the human body. Then, the two objective lenses  332  can capture images of the human body by controlling the operating set  34 , and the captured images are transferred to the host computer  311  of the body  31 , and the infrared light may penetrate into the deepest of organs or tissues of the human body to show dark and larger blood vessels, and the blue light may penetrate into the shallowest of organs or tissues of the human body to show red capillary. The penetration depth of the green light is between the penetration depths of the infrared light and the blue light. 
     Then, the user may control the penetrations of the infrared light, the green light, and the blue light to strengthen the features of images. The hemoglobin in the mucosal is the main material to absorb a visible light and shows the most obvious absorbing effect for the blue light with a wavelength of 415 nanometers and the green light with a wavelength of 540 nanometers wavelength. Thus, the blood vessels will appear dark under the narrow beam image (NBI) technology and this can provide a strong contrast to the captured images. Furthermore, the wavelengths of blue light and green light are shorter than the wavelengths of white light and infrared light, the penetrations of blue light and green light are weak for the mucosal, and the blue light and the green light will be reflected by a surface of the mucosal, and this can show a structure of shallow microvasculars. Additionally, when the light sources  12  are strongly reflected by the surface of the mucosal, the surface morphology of the mucosal can be shown clearly. Therefore, the narrow beam image (NBI) technology can improve the contrast ratio of images, and this can allow users to observe the area or position of interest to show the structure of shallow microvasculars and the micro surface structure of the mucosal clearly. 
     Furthermore, the program processing interface of the host computer  311  can process and synthesize the captured images to form a 3D image. During the operating process, the user operates the operating set  34  to enable the program processing interface of the host computer  311  to send a signal to the circuit board  11 , and at least one of the light sources  12  emits light to enable the two objective lenses  332  to capture images. Furthermore, the two objective lenses  332  can capture images at different positions by using the light sources  12  of different wavelengths. That is, the light sources  12  of different wavelengths can be arranged by the user to enable the two objective lenses  332  to capture images of nerves and organs or tissues with blood vessels at different positions. Then, the stereoscopic surgical microscope  30  can show clear 3D images to doctors, and doctors can see the tissue disease and the structure of blood vessels clearly to analyze the lesion accurately, and reduce the probability of cutting the blood vessels or nerves during surgery, and this can shorten time of surgery and the doctors can perform the surgery easily and accurately, significantly improving the quality of care surgery. 
     According to the above-mentioned technical features, the adjustable light source device  10  of the present invention is mounted on the stereoscopic surgical microscope  30 , and the user or doctor can activate at least one of the light sources  12  to emit light by sending signals to the circuit board  11  via the program processing interface of the host computer  311 . Then, the two objective lenses  332  can capture images of nerves and organs or tissues with blood vessels at different positions without the need to purchase a variety of light source devices of different wavelengths, and this can significantly enhance the medical practicability of the stereoscopic surgical microscope  30 . 
     Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.