Page 13 - Clinical Manual of Small Animal Endosurgery

Chapter 1

Rigid Endoscopy

Alasdair Hotston Moore

and Rosa Angela Ragni

Introduction

Endoscopy is a minimally invasive technique that uses a flexible or rigid
viewing instrument (endoscope) to look inside a body cavity or organ
for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Over the last three decades, the
importance of endoscopy has greatly increased in veterinary medicine
and practitioners are now more often requested to be proficient in it.
This chapter gives an overview of the equipment necessary to perform
rigid endoscopy, to allow the novice endoscopist to choose and maintain
the proper equipment, thus containing costs and enhancing professional
satisfaction.
Although rigid endoscopes cannot be manoeuvred around corners in
the way that a flexible endoscope can, they generally offer better optics
(particularly compared to traditional fibre-optic flexible scopes), are
more difficult to damage and are cheaper. Their rigidity permits better
manoeuvrability inside non-tubular structures, and consequently they are
preferred for many applications in small animal practice. Rhinoscopy,
otoscopy, cystoscopy and vaginoscopy using rigid scopes offer unparal-
leled views of different body cavities and allow the possibility of mini-
mally invasive therapeutic interventions; more advanced techniques, such
as arthroscopy, laparoscopy and thoracoscopy, allow ‘keyhole’ surgery,
thus minimising patient discomfort and recovery times. Some surgeons
also prefer rigid endoscopes for tracheobronchoscopy, oesophagoscopy
and colonoscopy.
Rigid endoscopy is extremely versatile, and a few core pieces of equip-
ment (a multipurpose telescope, a video system and some ancillary

Clinical Manual of Small Animal Endosurgery, First Edition. Edited by Alasdair Hotston Moore and
Rosa Angela Ragni.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.