Patent ID: 7537562

Claim:
An endoscope apparatus, comprising: an endoscope with a balloon attached to a tip end part of an insertion section by two annular catching members, each having an internal annular surface pressing against an external surface of a respective end of the balloon and holding the respective end of the balloon on the tip end part, and an insertion assisting tool into which the insertion section of the endoscope is inserted and which assists the insertion section in being inserted into a body cavity, wherein an external surface of each of the two annular catching members is an inclined surface that slants in a same direction toward a downstream side from an upstream side in an extracting direction of the insertion section with respect to the insertion assisting tool, and wherein a height of the inclined surface becomes larger from the upstream side in the extracting direction toward the downstream side, thereby, the balloon of the insertion section protruded from the tip end of the insertion assisting tool is made extractable from the insertion assisting tool and the tip end part of the insertion assisting tool is made to ride over the annular catching members and the balloon.