Rigid Endoscopes for diagnostics purposes

They are used in the majority of surgical endoscopic applications and enable endoscopists to visualize the surface of organs, their vessels, or pathological changes without large incisions of the body and delivering a view even more clear than with the naked eye. The main design criteria are the viewing angle, depth-of-field, magnification, image brightness, image quality, distortion, and image size, which have to be appropriately balanced.

Rigid endoscopes are commonly used in minimally invasive surgical procedures like rhinoscopy (nose), cystoscopy (urinary bladder), and laparoscopy (abdomen).

Rigid endoscopes are made of metal tubes which contain the lenses, and the light channel(s) and are available in a large range of external diameters, from 1 to 12 mm. 

Commonly, rigid endoscopes have a series of high-resolution optical glass rod lenses. The endoscopes can be forward viewing (0 degrees) or angled (10–120 degrees) to allow visualization out of the axis of the telescope.

Use of rigid endoscopes for performing laparoscopy (an excellent method for examination and biopsy of the liver, pancreas, and kidneys), vaginoscopy, urethroscopy and cystoscopy in female dogs and cats, rhinoscopy, thoracoscopy, arthroscopy, endoscopy in birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and otoscopy is increasing as awareness of the myriad procedures that can be done with this type of instrumentation increases.

Rhinoscopy: Rigid Rhinoscopy is a diagnostic tool in the investigation of dogs and cats with nasal disease. Conditions such as neoplasia (cancer) of the nasal cavity, fungal rhinitis (inflammation of the nasal cavity), nasal foreign body and lymphocytic-plasmacytic rhinitis (‘allergic’ nasal disease) all benefit from this diagnostic technique. 

Cystoscopy: Cystoscopy is the examination of the inside of the bladder and, in females, the entire urethra.  This is very useful tool for investigation of the urogenital tract (the urinary and reproductive systems) in dogs. It is commonly used in the diagnosis of anatomical abnormalities that can contribute to urinary incontinence.

Laparoscopy: Endoscopic examination of the abdominal cavity (‘tummy’), either for diagnostic or treatment purposes. Procedures that are suitable for laparoscopy include; neutering, retained tactical removal, biopsy procedures, abdominal exploration, gastopexy and cystostomy.

• Reduced pain from the surgical wounds, the pet is more comfortable post-surgery
• Two or three smaller surgical wounds
• Fewer stitches
• A faster return to normal activity, due to improved patient comfort and reduced scar tissue formation.

Thoracoscopy is the examination of the inside of the chest using an endoscope.

Rigid endoscope techniques can also be applied to some patients requiring thoracic surgery (surgery on the chest cavity). Not all patients are suitable for an endoscopic procedure and therefore the specific needs of a pet will be discussed with in detail with the Veterinarian.