Patent ID: 8287449

Claim:
An endoscope device, comprising: a control unit, the control unit including a ball shaft and a control lever arranged on the ball shaft, and the ball shaft including a ball member and an outer case that encases the ball member and rotates along an outer peripheral surface of the ball member by a tilting action of the control lever; a bendable probe unit arranged at a distal end of a wire extending from the control unit, the wire being attached to the outer case; and an anti-twist mechanism provided between the outer case and the ball shaft and configured to prevent the wire from becoming twisted when the outer case is rotated, wherein the anti-twist mechanism includes a pair of guide members provided on the ball shaft and extending only in one direction along an outer peripheral surface of the outer case and a pair of projection portions provided to be projected from the outer peripheral surface of the outer case and guided by guide grooves provided in the pair of guide members, at least one projection portion being configured to be capable of being disengaged with the corresponding guide groove of the guide member, when the outer case is rotated, wherein at least one of the pair of projection portions is guided by the corresponding guide groove to limit the rotation of the outer case, when the outer case is rotated along the outer peripheral surface of the ball member.