Journal - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

HÝSTORY OF ENDOSCOPY
laryngoscopy in 1855 by Manuel Garcia, a singing
teacher in Spain who succeeded in examining his
own larynx by the aid of two mirrors and the reflected
sunlight (5).
Oesophagoscopy appeared slightly later, after an
interesting observation of Adolph Kussmaul (an
internist) in Freiburg, Germany, who observed carefully
the demonstrations of sword swallowed and the
extended neck position in relation to the trunk during
its swallowing. In this way he performed the first
oesophagoscopy in 1868, with the aid of reflected
light (6).
Once, this progress was achieved in Europe, the
first clinic of laryngoscopy was established in 1870
in Vienna, as the first clinic of this speciality in the
world. Schrotter Von Kristelli was appointed the head
of this clinic (17).
Gustav Killian, in Freiburg, Germany, demonstrated
the first bronchoscopy in 1898 using a rigid
modified oesophagoscope inserted though a tracheostomy
wound (5).
A practical oesophagoscope with distal illumination
was devised later and practised by Chevalier
Jackson in 1902, and at the same time he presented
also the distally illuminated bronchoscope introduced
through the mouth (5). New endoscopic tubes with
proximal illumination near the handle of the endoscope
were presented by Haslinger while Saint Clair
introduced a third type in which two lamps are set
obliquely in the walls of the tube (14).
Endoscopy of the urinary tract started also very
early in the 19 th century, when Philip Bozzini, the
urologist in Frankfurt, Germany, did his early trails
for urethral examination in 1804.
Once Thomas Edison developed the electric lamp
in 1878 it opened the way for illuminated endoscopes.
Max Nitze was able in 1879 to present the
first distally lighted cystoscope, utilising a platinum
wire filament cooled by circulating water (5,6).
Felix Guyon and his pupil Albarron of the late
19 th century invented the cystoscope for urethral
catheterization, that has very much helped the
progress of renal, vesical and urethral surgery (5).
JISHIM 2004, 3
Mostafa SHEHATA
The last discovery in the 19 th century was the invention
of the laryngeal stroboscope by Max Joseph Oertel
in 1895, which helped the visualisation of the vibrating
vocal cords, in a slow motion movement (17).
The 20th Century
Early at the beginning third of this century at 1902
Chevalier Jackson in America has clearly demonstrated
all forms of distally illuminated rigid laryngoscopes,
bronchoscopes and oesophagoscopes as well
as the telescopes. This has opened the way for the
clinical and pathological study of the different lesions
and the removal of foreign bodies from the respiratory
and food passages (5,6).
The early telescopes that were presented by
Jackson consisted of a series of small lenses separated
by air spaces to help increase in viewing angle and
magnification.
Hopkins, the British optical physicist added the
telescopic rod lens system, that allows more light,
wider viewing and greater magnification (6). This
allowed more endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic
procedures.
In few years Jackson had many skilled assistants
and had very efficient staff who occupied six chairs
in this speciality (5).
During the second third of this century the principles
of Lamm, that developed in 1930 in the transmission
of an image through the coherent bundle of
small flexible glass threads had permitted the development
of the early flexible endoscopes (6).
Hirschowitz and his associates applied the fiber
optic principle to the gastroscope in 1958 (6).
Ikeda and his team as well as others applied it to
bronchoscopy and oesophagoscopy in 1958 (6,7).
The advantages of the fiber-optic endoscopes are
many. They added to the extent of visualization,
washing brushings, curettage and biopsy. In bronchoscopy
they carried examination further to the
periphery of the lungs (6).
Endoscopic documentation appeared in 1942 when
Holinger presented his camera, that can work through
the bronchoscopes and oesophagoscopes (6,8).
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