ABSTRACT
Development of VE is the result of the convergence of advances in surgical endoscopy, radiology, and computer science and technology. Each of these professions has contributed to the nascent field of VE. The early nineteenth century witnessed the development of laryngoscopy, starting with Bozzini's attempts to use extracorporeallight to view luminal cavities of the body in 1809 [3]. Subsequently, the mirror laryngoscope, head mirror, and external sources of illumination were developed. From these primitive devices, developed in the early to
mid-nineteenth century, major advances in lighting, optics, flexible fiberoptics, and documentation techniques have made endoscopic procedures indispensable to the modem practice of otolaryngology. Endoscopic applications have expanded from their origins in the upper respiratory and digestive tract to the nasal cavity and sinuses and more recently to imaging the middle ear [4-7].
