An endoscope is medical instruments consisting of a long, thin tube that is either rigid or flexible, equipped with a light and video camera. It is used to enter the patient's body so that the insides can be displayed on a screen. The images can then be recorded so that the doctor can examine the interior surfaces of an organ or tissue for any adverse conditions or illnesses.
Ancient Times
Some historians suggest that instruments created to allow people to look inside the human body may have been developed as far back as the ancient Roman period. Archaeologists discovered something that looked like a prototypical endoscope in the ruins of Pompeii, the Roman town destroyed by a volcano in AD 79.
Invention
The invention of the endoscope, however, is attributed to Philip Bozzini in 1805. Bozzini, attempting to examine the urinary tract, used a tube he created that he called a Lichtleiter (light guiding instrument). It was Antoine Jean Desormeaux who gave the instrument the name "endoscope."
Development
Adolph Kussmaul was able to be the first person to use an endoscope to examine the inside of a stomach belonging to a living human body in 1868. Then ten years later, in 1878, a pair of doctors---Max Nitze and Josef Leiter---invented a type of endoscope called the cystourethroscope, which is used to inspect the urinary tract and the bladder.
More specialization and refinement followed. In 1881, Johann von Mikulicz created the first-ever gastroscope, used for the small intestine, stomach and esophagus. Rudolph Schindler improved on the invention by creating a flexible one in 1932, and a team of doctors and optical engineers created a tiny camera version they referred to as the gastrocamera.
Fiber Optics
In the same decade the gastrocamera was invented (the 1950s), Harold Hopkins came up with a device called a fibroscope. It consisted of a bundle of flexible glass fibers. The fibroscope gave better image quality than its predecessors due to a more honed light focus on the inspected areas.
Uses
Endoscopes are used to investigate or diagnose a host of illnesses or ailments. Some of them are include breathing disorders, chronic diarrhea, internal bleeding, irritable bowel syndrome and stomach ulcers.
Types of Endoscopes
Endoscopes can be referred to according to the part of the interior body examined. A few examples---apart from the aforementioned cystourethroscope and gastroscope---are the bronchoscope (the air passages and lungs), colonoscope (colon), arthroscope (the joints) and hysteroscope (uterus).
Tags: human body, urinary tract