TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an endoscope.

BACKGROUND ART

In the related art, there is known an invention related to an endoscope flexible tube having excellent resistance to autoclave sterilization (see Patent Literature 1 below). The endoscope flexible tube disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is provided with a spiral tube, a mesh tube placed on the spiral tube, and an outer skin covering the outer periphery of the mesh tube. In this endoscope flexible tube, at least the outer surface of the outer skin contains a thermoplastic elastomer compounded with 0.5 to 50% by weight of a fullerene compound (see, for example, claim 1 in Patent Literature 1).

CITATION LIST

Patent Literature

Patent Literature 1: JP 2006-116128 A

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

Technical Problem

In recent years, there is growing demand for price reduction of endoscopes. However, depending on materials used for an insertion unit in an endoscope, the endoscope may reduce in operability and insertability and may increase in cost.

Accordingly, the present disclosure provides an endoscope that enables cost containment without deteriorating operability and insertability.

Solution to Problem

An endoscope according to the present disclosure is an endoscope provided with an insertion unit including an imaging unit and an operation unit configured to bend a part of the insertion unit, wherein at least a part of the insertion unit includes a tube formed of a resin, the tube including a plurality of channels formed of the resin included in the tube.

The endoscope may be provided with a single-use portion including the tube that is replaced for each use and a reusable portion including the imaging unit that is collected for each use to be reused.

The insertion unit may include a distal tip including the imaging unit, a bending section that is bent by the operation unit, and a flexible section disposed between the bending section and the operation unit, and at least a part of the bending section and a part of the flexible section may include the tube, and the resin excluding the channels may have a porosity of 0% or more and 80% or less.

The resin in the bending section may have an average porosity larger than an average porosity of the resin in the flexible section.

At least a part of the resin included in the tube may be a porous resin.

The porous resin may have a porosity changing in an axial direction or in a radial direction of the tube.

The endoscope may be provided with a rigid member inserted through the channels and an angle wire inserted through the rigid member and connected to a bending mechanism of the bending section, and the operation unit may be configured to operate the angle wire.

The rigid member may have flexural rigidity higher than flexural rigidity of the tube, being inserted through the channels in the flexible section.

The insertion unit may include a breaking section that is broken when the imaging unit is removed.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present disclosure, it is possible to provide an endoscope that enables cost containment without deteriorating operability and insertability.

