Detachable Electronic Endoscope Layout for Sterile Single-Use Bodies
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional electronic endoscopes face challenges with complex sterilization requirements, high costs, and equipment degradation, leading to incomplete sterilization, cross-infection risks, and high operational costs, which hinder their adoption in hospitals.
Innovation Solution
A highly integrated detachable electronic endoscope design, featuring a detachable endoscope body and handle, with a customizable number of uses, allowing for easy assembly, disassembly, and integration of electronic control components to limit usage, ensuring sterilization is not required, and preventing overheating and electrical failures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional electronic endoscopes use hydrogen peroxide low-temperature plasma sterilization, then sterilization can be achieved without high temperature damage to electronic components, but sterilization efficacy is compromised due to complex mechanisms involving oxidizing agents and UV light that can fail
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the disposable principle by making the endoscope body a single-use component that is discarded after one sterilization cycle, while the handle and electronic components are reusable. This eliminates the need for complex sterilization mechanisms for the entire device, as only the disposable endoscope body requires sterilization validation, significantly simplifying the sterilization process and improving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the endoscope into three main parts: a disposable endoscope body, a reusable handle, and a reusable connector. This segmentation allows different parts to have different sterilization requirements, with only the disposable body needing full sterilization validation, thereby reducing the complexity of the overall sterilization mechanism while maintaining efficacy.
2Reliability
If hydrogen peroxide low-temperature plasma sterilization is used for electronic endoscopes, then electronic components are protected from high temperature damage, but sterilization costs increase due to consumable hydrogen peroxide and extended processing time
Solution Approach 1:
By making the endoscope body disposable, the patent eliminates the need for repeated sterilization cycles, thereby eliminating the time loss and consumable costs associated with hydrogen peroxide sterilization for multiple uses. The electronic components remain protected during the initial sterilization process, while the disposable nature of the body removes ongoing sterilization time and cost burdens.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the disposable endoscope body from the reusable handle, allowing the body to be pre-sterilized and sealed in a sterile container. This extraction enables the sterile barrier to be maintained without requiring active sterilization processing at the point of use, thereby eliminating processing time loss while maintaining electronic component protection during the initial sterilization.
3Temperature
If hydrogen peroxide low-temperature plasma sterilization is used, then sterilization can be achieved without high temperature, but sterilization resistance decreases as materials age and fail after 50 to 100 cycles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the disposable principle to the endoscope body, which is designed for a single use and then discarded. This eliminates the material aging and failure issues that occur after 50-100 sterilization cycles, as the disposable body never undergoes repeated sterilization. The low-temperature sterilization method is used once to validate sterility, but the disposable nature prevents cumulative material degradation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent discards the disposable endoscope body after one use, preventing the accumulation of material degradation from repeated sterilization cycles. This discarding strategy eliminates service life limitations related to sterilization resistance, while the reusable handle and connector can be recovered and used multiple times without undergoing the same sterilization stress.
4Stability of the object's composition
If traditional electronic endoscopes are designed as integrated units, then structural integrity is maintained, but portability and ease of transportation deteriorate due to complex supporting equipment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the endoscope into a disposable endoscope body and a reusable handle that can be separated. This segmentation allows the heavy supporting equipment to be eliminated, as each component is independently functional or can be shared across multiple uses. The structural integrity of each segment is maintained while the overall system weight for transportation is significantly reduced.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the electronic components and power source into the reusable handle, which can be shared across multiple disposable bodies. This merging eliminates the need for each complete endoscope to carry duplicate heavy equipment, thereby improving portability while maintaining structural integrity through the robust handle design that supports multiple uses.
5Duration of action of stationary object
If special plastics like PEEK and PPSU are used to improve sterilization resistance, then service life is prolonged, but production costs significantly increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses inexpensive materials for the disposable endoscope body, eliminating the need for expensive special plastics like PEEK and PPSU. Since the body is discarded after one use, material cost is optimized for single-use performance rather than long-term durability. The reusable handle and connector can use more durable materials, but the overall production cost is reduced by applying the disposable principle to the component requiring the most sterilization cycles.
Data Source
AI summary
A highly integrated detachable electronic endoscope includes an endoscope body and a handle that are detachably connected via a connector. The endoscope body is configured for insertion into an examined body, and a camera module and an illumination module are disposed within a front end of the endoscope body. An image processing module is disposed inside the handle, while an operation key is disposed outside the handle, and the handle is connected to an external display via a cable. A limiter or an electronic control component allowing customization of a number of uses is disposed on the endoscope body, the handle, or the connector. The highly integrated detachable electronic endoscope features high integration level, high safety, good continuous usability, and low cost.