Borescope

The word endoscopy means “looking inside”, more spefically looking inside the human body for medical reasons. Endoscopy utilizes a borescope – a device that is also used for conducting inspections in engineering and technical situations such as the inspection of nuclear fuel elements, engines where direct line-of-sight observation is not possible. In fact, the whole idea came from the machining industry and later it found application in the human body. The borescope is an optical tool that allows you to get a clear view of tiny areas that are otherwise impossible to reach. This very same instrument, once applied for medical purposes is called an endoscope. Of course, there are some differences due to the nature of the investigation, but still the main idea remains the same.

Endoscopy is a minimally invasive diagnostic medical procedure used to evaluate the interior surfaces of an organ by inserting a small tube into the body, called endoscope. Usually, but not necessarily, the endoscope enters through a natural body opening. Through the endoscope one is able to see lesions and other surface conditions.

The instrument may have a rigid or a flexible tube and not only provide an image, for visual inspection and photography, but also enable taking biopsies and retrieval of foreign objects. Endoscopy is the vehicle for minimally invasive surgery. Just like borescopes often allow mechanics not to disassemble an entire engine, an endoscope allows doctors to examine the internal organs of a patient without the need of surgery.

To define it in a more scientific way, the endoscope is a medical instrument used for visual examination of the interior of a body cavity or a hollow organ such as the colon, bladder, or stomach. It is a rigid or flexible tube fitted with lenses, a fiber-optic light source, and often a probe, forceps, suction device, or other apparatus for examination or retrieval of tissue.

There are different types of endoscopes, depending on the medical procedure. The various types of endoscopes differ slightly in tube diameter and length. For example, the endoscope used to look at the stomach is called a gastroscope and the endoscope used to look at the colon is called a colonoscope. A bronchoscope, used to view the lungs, is another type of endoscope. All allow the doctor to visually inspect tissues, sample small portions of tissue to diagnose problems (biopsy) and to treat some of the diseases that occur in critically ill patients.

The technology behind an endoscope is not hard to understand. Basically, it consists of tube with usually two optical fiber lines – input and output. The "light fiber" carries light into the body cavity, illuminating the organ or object under inspection and the "image fiber" carries the image of the body cavity back to the physician's viewing lens. There is also a separate port to allow for administration of drugs, suction, and irrigation.

Upper Endoscopy | Borescope Lens | Camera Lens | Gradient Lens | Optical Lens | Rod Lens |