Endoscopy

The Professional Development Service for Teachers is funded by the Department

of Education and Science under the National Development Plan
 Endoscopy

This unit is about endoscopy and

how doctors use this method to
look inside patients bodies
 Objectives

By the end of this unit you should be able to

• Understand Total Internal Reflection and

how endoscopes rely on this
• Understand how an endoscope works
• Understand when doctors choose to use
endoscopes
• Have the basic knowledge needed for
expert group tasks
 WHAT IS ENDOSCOPY?
• The word endoscopy is derived from the Greek words
"Endo" meaning "inside" and "skopeein" meaning "to
see". It is a word used in medicine to describe the
procedure used see inside various parts of the body.

• Historically, it was known that it is possible to insert

tubes into body orifices, but to see clearly a method
was needed to illuminate the inside of the organ to be
seen.

• The earliest crude attempts used oil lamps, which

were later replaced by small electric filament bulbs.
These were not very bright and tended to produce a
lot of heat.
 Science of Endoscopy
• Medical endoscopy really came into its
own after the invention and application
of fibre-optic technology to endoscopy.

• Fibre-optic endoscopes use bundles of

thin glass fibres to transmit light to and
from the organ being viewed. These
fibres use the principle of
total internal reflection to transmit
almost 100 % of the light entering one
end to the other end.
 Student Activity
You can observe

Total Internal Reflection in the

lab using the apparatus shown

• Fill the bottle with water

• Pierce a hole in the side
• Shine the laser through the
hole

Observe!!
• You should see the laser light
trapped inside the stream of
water
Play video intrefl_low.avi
 Investigating total internal
reflection
Ray 1: The angle of incidence is < 42º
Shine rays of light Ray 2: The angle of incidence = 42º
Ray 3: The angle of incidence >42º
onto the curved
surface of a
semicircular perspex
block as shown

Observe what happens 3

2
To the refracted ray 1

The angle of incidence is

the angle between the
incident ray and the normal
 42º is called the critical angle for perspex

Use your observations to help you complete the

sentences
When the angle of incidence is< critical angle
then…………………..

When the angle of incidence is= critical angle

then……………….

When the angle of incidence is>critical angle

then………………….
 Fibre optics
An important application of total internal reflection is in
fibre optics.

Figure 1

Light is shone along a thin glass fibre and as it hits the

glass-air boundary at more than the critical angle it
reflects along inside the fibre.

The bundles are often called light pipes but you must
realize that they are not really a pipe – there is no
hollow tube down the centre, each fibre is solid glass
and the light is simply “trapped” inside the glass
The effect of cladding the fibres with another
glass of slightly lower refractive index is shown
in the following two diagrams

Without cladding some light may escape from the

glass into the air

Figure 2

Cladding (n = 1.45)

Core (n = 1.55)

Figure 3

n is the refractive index of the glass this determines how

much the light is “bent”
 An Endoscope

Fibre-optic endoscopes are delicate and

expensive items.
The fibres have to be made of special glass.
“Endoscopy" is a general term. There are specific words for viewing
specific parts and organs of the body. Endoscopy done through
existing body openings can usually be done under local anaesthesia,
but other types that require a small puncture to see an "internal
cavity" may need hospital admission and a general anaesthetic. In
each type small pieces of tissue can be removed for tests and some
other procedures can be done.
 List of the major types of
endoscopy
• GASTROSCOPY: To see the gullet, stomach and upper small
intestine.
• COLONOSCOPY: To see the large intestine.
• LAPAROSCOPY: To see the "stomach cavity" and the organs
therein.
• PROCTOSCOPY: This is used to check for piles and other
conditions of the anus and rectum. The picture on the right
illustrates this.
• CYSTOSCOPY: To see the urinary bladder.
• BRONCHOSCOPY: To see the air passages to the lungs.
• LARYNGOSCOPY: To see the larynx or voice box.
• NASOPHARYNGOSCOPY: To see the nose and related cavities.
• ARTHROSCOPY: To see inside joints such as the knee joint.
• THORACOSCOPY: To see inside the chest cavity.
 Limitations of Endoscopy
Compared with other parts of the
digestive tract, the small intestine is
difficult for doctors to access. While a
camera-tipped tube slipped down the
throat can get images of the stomach
and a tube inserted at the other end of
the tract reveals the large intestine, no
such device reaches into most of the
small intestine. So, doctors rely on
externally generated images
Capsule endoscopy
Scientists recently devised a
disposable flash camera only
slightly larger than a vitamin pill. In
a procedure called capsule
endoscopy, the patient swallows the
minicam, which then takes pictures
inside the small intestine. On its
journey through the digestive tract,
the tiny tumbling camera transmits
images that are stored in a recorder
that the person wears around the
waist. After 8 hours, the camera's
battery runs out, and the capsule is
eliminated in the faeces. Scientists
then download the recorder's
images into a computer.
An Endoscopic Image of the Colon
Click on image
to play