Manually operated ultrasound applicator

#The invention relates to an ultrasound applicator for diagnosis; more specifically it relates to a manually operated applicator suitable for examining internal organs and tissues of the human body, which applicator incorporates an ultrasound transducer composed of a plurality of converter elements built into an elongated, rigid housing having a scanning surface designed for placement onto the body area or organ to be examined. The housing, furthermore, is equipped with an elongated handle being connected to the ultrasound transducer by means of a joint member.

#Ultrasound applicators of this kind conventionally are designed for scanning internal organs of the human body through the skin, however it would be desirable to provide a ultrasound applicator designed for use during open surgery especially for diagnosis of tissues or organs directly accessible from the outside just during such treatment.

#The published German Patent Application No. 2,950,203, discloses an endoscope constituting an eye piece, a flexible tube, including a bendable connecting portion and a cylinder-shaped front portion. A light conductor and control cables are arranged within the flexible tube and the front portion bears a built-in ultrasound transducer. The known endoscope is not very well adapted for use during open surgery because it cannot be sufficiently sterilized due to its sensitive optical system. In addition, the design of the bendable connecting portion renders the known endoscope applicable only for examination procedures requiring just relatively small bending angles. It is also desirable to keep the surgical area i.e. the field of the human body affected by an operation as small as possible and it is difficult to apply the cylinder-shaped endoscope in a manner which places the ultrasound transducer--seen from the perspective of the surgical area--beneath the object of examination. Therefore, possible applications of the known apparatus are rather limited.

#A better understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following description of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a sideview of a first embodiment of an ultrasound applicator according to the present invention with a handle and a transducer member pivotally attached thereto;

#FIG. 2 is a front view of the same ultrasound applicator;

#FIGS. 1 through 4 represent different views, a cross-section and a partial sectional view, respectively of a preferred embodiment of a manually operated ultrasound applicator comprising a transducer member 1 and a handle 14 wherein the transducer member is pivotally arranged with respect to the handle.

#The transducer member 1 shown in FIG. 1 in two possible tilted positions includes an ultrasound array mounted in an elongated, rigid housing 2 having a scanning surface 3. Details of this scanning surface are illustrated in a sectional view of FIG. 4 representing an enlarged section designated by reference IV in FIG. 1. The ultrasound array is provided with a plurality of converter elements 4 arranged adjacent to scanning surface 3. These converter elements 4 mounted in the housing 2 are finely segmented. A plurality of adjacent elements, for example, four of these segmented converter elements 4, are grouped together by a common electrical contact to an element group 5. A total of 48 groups may be provided. Contact flags 6 of a contact comb each are used for contacting a respective group 5 and are embedded on a support member 7 also bearing the ultrasound converter elements 4. The support member 7 may be composed of an epoxy resin having particles of oxidized tungsten powder implanted therein. A matching layer 8 for the converter elements forms the bottom surface, i.e. the scanning surface 3 of the housing 2 and may also be made of epoxy resin. The design concept of such an ultrasound transducer array comprising fine segmented converter elements is known to those skilled in the art and is disclosed in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,305,014; further detailed description is therefore deemed not to be necessary. Scanning surface 3 can vary in length depending upon the intended applications.

#The transducer member 1 has a first and a second end portion, the latter forming a tapered front end tip. The first end portion is formed of a bearing bracket comprising two prongs 10, 11, respectively projecting spaced apart from each other and in parallel to the longitudinal axis of the transducer member 1.