Patent ID: 8485968

Claim:
A rigid, rod-shaped endoscope for medical applications, comprising: a distal end including a light-permeable distal window and a light outlet disposed adjacent to the distal window, the distal window including a device configured to prevent incidence of stray light onto sides of a moveable optical deflection prism facing the distal window; a proximal end including at least one of an optical observation device and a camera adapter; an endoscope shank including a plurality of telescoping hollow tubes, two of the hollow tubes forming an outer jacket tube with the distal window; an inner fixed optical tube including the optical deflection prism disposed so as to face the distal window and an optical system disposed inside the inner fixed optical tube and configured to transmit light beams, the optical deflection prism being mounted rotatably on a shaft that is disposed at a right angle to a longitudinal axis of the endoscope, the inner fixed optical tube being disposed in a tightly and hermetically sealed chamber formed by the outer jacket tube so as to allow an outside of the outer jacket tube to be sterilized by steam; and at least one hollow moveable sliding tube disposed between the outer jacket tube and the inner fixed optical tube, extending between the distal end and the proximal end, and configured to move relative to the inner fixed optical tube in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the endoscope using magnetic forces generated by a plurality of moveable permanent magnets disposed at the proximal end, at least one of the permanent magnets being disposed inside the hermetically sealed chamber and at least one of the permanent magnets being disposed outside of the hermetically sealed chamber, the sliding tube being connected to the optical deflection prism at the distal end such that movement of the sliding tube in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the endoscope by the permanent magnets at the proximal end causes the optical deflection prism to rotate around the shaft at the distal end.