Abstract
We have newly designed a cavoendoscope utilizing glass-fibers mainly for the purpose of esophageal examination. The object-lens is attached to the distal tip of the glass-fiber bundle, which makes the angle of vision quite wide with 60 degrees. The tube consists of a bundle of glassfibers and a light guide of the same material with an air-cooled bright lamp on the proximal end. The lamp is interchangeable with a xenon lamp for the purpose of photography. In order to avoid contact of the object-lens to the mucosa, an inflatable rubber cuff is applied to the tube just proximal to the lens. Also, an attempt was made to measure the object, utilizing the grid structure of the glass-fiber bundle in conjunction with the focusing ring. Using this fiber-scope, we have detected five esophageal cancers, three malignancies in the cardia and one esophageal diverticulum among fifty-six patients examined. The apparatus was also tried for rectosigmoidal examination and one sigmoid cancer was encountered out of eleven investigations.
