Endoscope system with plasma flushing and separator for off-pump cardiac surgery

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a new endoscope for performing simple surgical tasks inside a cardiac atrium/chamber filled with blood, that is in "off-pump" cardiac surgeries. In general, it is very difficult to observe the inner side of the vessels containing circulating blood because the light of the endoscope is scattered by the red blood cells. The "plasma flushing" system is invented to observe the inner side of the heart filled with blood, to remove blood cells in front of the tip of the endoscope. We developed an endoscope with the separator to observe φ5-mm circle at 5.5-mm distant from endoscope.