Abstract
At the time of endoscopic examination the object lens is lavaged by irrigation. The lavage water, however, is not sufficiently removed from the lens, causing blurring of visualisation (Figure 3, 4 and 5), a constant irritation for endoscopists.
The authors developed a modified insufflation-irrigation piston (Figure 1), which allows ejection of air-water mixture from the nozzle (Figure 2) for lavage of the lens. This system for irrigation was named "spray method".
Comparison of the examinations (44 by the spray method and 39 by the conventional, Tables 1 and 2, using GTF-B3 or GTF-S4, the side-viewing gastrocamera-incorporated fibrescopes (Olympus Optical Co.) ) showed highly significant (p<0.01) reduction in the incidence of blurring : Blurring occurred in 36% by the spray method in contrast to 55% by the conventional (Table 3).
The spray method irrigation system is effective in improving the quality of endoscopic visualisation and photography.
