ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces endoscopes from an engineering point of view. It describes two important examples of endoscopic surgery—laparoscopy and arthroscopy—in detail to illustrate the applications of advanced technologies in endoscopic surgery. Most modern rigid endoscopes employ Hopkins rod lenses as the relay system. The illumination for a modern endoscope is provided by cold light sourced from halogen, xenon or halide lamps. The flexible endoscope can be inserted along a complicated path, and enable the surgeon to view the object in any direction. Therefore, electrosurgical technology is preferred by surgeons who are performing endoscopic procedures. In optical coherence tomography-incorporated endoscopy, laser beams are delivered by optical fibers to the tissue and back-scattered light is collected by a procedure called ‘low-coherence interferometry’. The chapter discusses the mechanical issues of the surgical tools. Laparoscopic surgery is one of the most common forms of endoscopic surgery.
