For many years, unsterile surgical cameras and optical connectors known in the art as "C" or "V" mount connectors have been used in surgery by placing them into a sterile plastic bag or drape that has a distal end including an opening for receiving the eyepiece of a sterile or disinfected endoscope. The act of coupling the sterile or disinfected endoscope through the opening in the drape to the unsterile optical connector can create contamination. That is, the interior of the drape that houses the unsterile camera and optical connector is exposed to the sterile environment of an operating room through the hole located at the distal end of the drape. When the eyepiece of the endoscope is inserted through this hole for connection to the optical connector, this hole often becomes enlarged thus enhancing the possibility of contamination travelling from the interior of the drape to the sterile operating room. The further acts of aligning the endoscope with the optical connector and sealing the distal end of the drape around the protruding distal portion of the endoscope can also result in further contamination.
My earlier U.S. Pat. No. Re. 34,002 discloses a sterilizable video camera cover which has a connector including a guideway for receiving an unsterile video camera within it in a predetermined fixed orientation. One end of the video camera cover receives a sterile mount and endoscope in a fixed position with respect to the camera. An accordion-folded sleeve is positioned on the camera cover and is extended over the trailing cables of the camera to maintain the sterile environment within the operating room even though the camera and trailing cables are unsterile.
A sterile pouch for containing a standard still picture camera for use in an operating room is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,537,303 to Cobb, Jr. et al. However, there is no thought in this device of connecting the camera to other optical means. Other containers for protecting cameras in varying environments are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,026,784 to Byers, U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,759 to Vooght and U.S. Pat. No. 2,132,549 to Wenstrom. However, none of these references are intended for use in an operating room to maintain the environment within the operating room in a sterile condition when the camera is not sterile.
There are numerous references which disclose sterile drapes or covers for isolating an unsterile camera and its trailing cables from the sterile environment of an operating room. Examples of such references include U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,500 to Dunn, U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,483 to Herzberg, U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,894 to Hicks, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,846 to Szabo. While each of these references may be adequate for their intended purpose, none of these references disclose a device which allows endoscopes to be freely interchanged with a single camera setup and yet maintain the required sterility of an operating room.