Technical potential and limitations of cholangioscopes.

The current status and future technological trends for cholangioscopes and cholecystoscopes are discussed. Overall views of diagnostic and therapeutic medical techniques, as well as the technical state of the art of the instruments used to perform them are presented and, on the basis of the overall pictures, those technologies to be improved or to be developed in the future are discussed, together with an approximate estimation of the time required for such improvements/new developments. The discussion concentrates on current and future trends of thin-caliber fiberscope technologies. Since the fiberscopes required for cholangioscopy and cholecystoscopy differ slightly, the discussion treats each application separately.