Apparatus for guiding surgical instruments for endoscopic surgery

US5997471A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Lothar Gumb · Karlsdorf-Neuthard, DE
• Aribert Schaf · Bruchsal, DE
• Rainer Trapp · Graben-Neudorf, DE
• Gerhard Buess · Tübingen, DE
• Marc O. Schurr · Lörrach, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 26, 1997
• Grant date: Dec 7, 1999
• Expiry date: Aug 26, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61B90/50
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

In an apparatus for guiding surgical instruments during endoscopic surgery including a carrier on which a support member is rotatably mounted about a first axis and a housing structure is mounted on the support member so as to pivot about a second axis which is spaced from the housing structure and intersects the first axis in an invariant point and the housing slidably supports an instrument shaft having an axis also extending through the invariant point and an end which is mounted on a guide member, which is axially movably supported on a guide housing extending from the housing structure parallel to the instrument shaft, a camera is firmly supported on the guide housing in alignment with the instrument shaft so as to be axially movable but not rotatable with the instrument shaft whereby an image transmitted from a lens system at the front end of the instrument shaft to the camera at the rear end of the shaft is shown at a given top-to-bottom orientation independently the rotational position of the instrument shaft.