MEDICAL VISUALIZATION AND/OR ILLUMINATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INDICATING NON-VISIBLE ILLUMINATION LIGHT

Abstract

To improve the use properties of a visualization and/or illumination system (1), with which an object can be illuminated with non-visible illumination light (2) during a medical intervention, some of the illumination light (2) transported by the system (1) is branched off and guided to a converter (3), which picks up, in particular detects or absorbs, the illumination light (2) and subsequently converts it into an indication signal (4) that is perceivable by humans and outputs this indication signal (4). Using the indication signal (4), a user can thus quickly and easily check whether or not the illumination light (2) is currently being emitted by the system (1).

Description

Claims

1. A visualization and/or illumination system (1) configured for illuminating an object to be observed during a medical intervention with non-visible illumination light (2) in a first wavelength range, the system comprising: a converter (3) which converts the non-visible illumination light (2) into an indication signal (4) that is perceivable by humans.

2. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the converter (3) outputs the indication signal (4) only if the non-visible illumination light (2) is present.

3. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the converter (3) converts at least some of the illumination light (2) into visible indication light (5).

4. The system (1) according to claim 3, wherein the converter is configured to convert the at least some of the illumination light (2) into the visible indication light (5) based on a photoactive substance which enables optical wavelength conversion of the illumination light (2) into the indication light (5) without an external energy supply.

5. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the converter (3) comprises a photoactive conversion material (6), and the conversion material (6) is at least one of applied as a conversion layer (11) on a carrier body (12) or embedded in a transparent carrier body (12).

6. The system (1) according to claim 5, wherein the conversion material (6) contains a photoactive substance that is at least one of produced via a sintering method or applied on a ceramic as the carrier body (12).

7. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the illumination light (2) is at least one of reflected or transmitted by the converter (3).

8. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the converter (3), upon the conversion of the non-visible illumination light (2) into the visible indication light (5), is configured to effect conversion from longer wavelengths to shorter wavelengths.

9. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the converter (3), upon the conversion of the non-visible illumination light (2) into the visible indication light (5), is configured to effect conversion from shorter wavelengths to longer wavelengths.

10. The system (1) according to claim 3, wherein the converter (3) is arranged in an interior space (14) of the system (1) and the indication light (5) is at least one of observable through a window (13) from outside the interior space, or applied on an outside of the window (13) or embedded in the window (13), and the non-visible illumination light (2) passes through the window (13) before becoming incident on the conversion material (6).

11. The system (1) according to claim 1, wherein the converter (3) is arranged in or on at least one of a) a housing (15) that surrounds a light guide (16), which propagates the invisible illumination light (2) to an illumination optical unit (16), b) a lightguide cable (8), which supplies the invisible illumination light (2) to an illumination optical unit (16), or c) a catheter configured to introduce the invisible illumination light (2) into a body cavity.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the converter (3) is arranged such that the converter (3) is located extracorporeally when the visualization and/or illumination system (1) is used.

12. The system (1) according claim 1, further comprising a light source (10), configured to emit the illumination light (2), is arranged in an interior space (14), and a light guide (16) arranged in the interior space (14) configured to guide the illumination light (2) to the converter (3).

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the system comprises an endoscope, and the light source (10) is arranged in a distal end region (17) of the endoscope (7) and the light guide (16) propagates the illumination light (2) in a direction of a proximal end (30) of the endoscope (7).

14. The system (1) according to claim 1, further comprising an internal light guide (16) forming a branch (19) which branches off some of the illumination light (2) from an optical main path (18) used for the illumination and the branch (19) guides some of the illumination light (2) to the converter (3).

15. The system (1) of claim 1, wherein the system comprises an endoscope (7), an exoscope, a microscope, or an illumination optical unit.

16. A method for indicating a presence of non-visible illumination light (2), which is emitted by a visualization and/or illumination system (1) in order to illuminate an object to be observed during a medical intervention, the method comprising: providing the non-visible illumination light (2), andconverting the non-visible illumination light (2) by a converter (3) into an indication signal (4) that is perceivable by humans, andoutputting the indication signal.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising the converter (3) picking up some of the illumination light (2) and, in reaction thereto, outputting at least one of a) the optical indication signal (4), b) an acoustic indication signal, or c) a mechanical indication signal.

18. The method according to claim 16, further comprising the converter (3) carrying out an optical wavelength conversion of the illumination light (2) into the indication light (5) without an external energy supply.