The Development and Progress of Endoscopes in the Field of Bronchoesophagology

It is already 90 years since the development of rigid type bronchoscope and 22 years since the flexible bronchofiberscope was developed for the first time in the world. The role of bronchoscope has been greatly expanded these days in diagnosis and treatment of chest diseases, and the bronchoscope has become an effective weapon in its enlarged fields and methods such as the diagnosis of lung cancer, laser treatment, diagnosis, treatment, pathological and physiological researches of diffuse pulmonary diseases.Besides, the recording method has been also improved rapidly for the images of bronchoscopic findings in the still and dynamic image processing. Particularly with the progress of electronic equipment, the development of endoscopic television system has been achieved in the T. V. endoscopes using a small size C. C. D. camera in the tip part, and very recently a bronchial T. V. endoscope has been developed with the world smallest T. V. camera in the tip part of 6. 8 mm in diameter. Furthermore, it has become possible to make clearer image of th lesions with technique of digitizing T. V. images and image processing.The bronchoscopic diagnosis and treatment will be explained together with the new progresses in those equipments.