Abstract: A basket-type grasping tool, adapted for use in combination with an endoscope, for capturing a foreign material or the like into a basket section. Axially corresponding portions of elastic wires are each twisted in the same direction about a center axis of a basket section. Guide paths, through which the elastic wires respectively pass, are formed on an inner face of a tip-end mouth of a sheath.

Abstract: A wire loop type instrument for an endoscope having a plurality of elastic wires bundled together at distal and proximal ends thereof and adapted to form a loop shape as a whole. When withdrawn into the distal end of a sheath, the elastic wires are folded. When projecting from the distal end of the sheath, the elastic wires expand in the loop shape by their own elasticity. The elastic wires are inserted in a bundle into a pipe-shaped member at at least one of the distal and proximal ends thereof. The elastic wires are fixed to the pipe-shaped member by a fixing material such that portions of the elastic wires which are in the vicinity of the entrance of the pipe-shaped member are not fixed, but the elastic wires are fixed to the pipe-shaped member at portions thereof which are on the inner side of the vicinity of the entrance.

Abstract: A wire loop type instrument for an endoscope that uses an elastic wire formed from a stranded wire bent into a U-shape and looped at the rear of the U-shaped bent portion. Each strand of the stranded wire has a non-circular cross-sectional configuration in which the strand is more resistant to bending in other directions than in a direction toward the center of the elastic wire. The stranded wire is formed by twisting together a plurality of strands each having a circular cross-section. The stranded wire is passed through a die with a hole having a smaller diameter than that of the stranded wire, thereby compression-deforming each strand into a non-circular cross-sectional configuration. A composite stranded wire may be used as the elastic wire, which is formed by twisting together a plurality of stranded wires each formed from a plurality of strands twisted together.