Video endoscopy.

The advent of the video endoscope is the most profound change in the design of gastrointestinal endoscopes since the introduction of the optical fibre bundle. As a television system, it is more expensive than existing systems but surpasses them in quality in my opinion. However, the CCD endoscope will not survive only as a special system for television. Although all the currently available and prototype instruments are acceptable for most aspects of diagnostic endoscopy, there is debate as to whether or not the CCD endoscope will replace the fibrescope. I think that this is a distinct possibility, but in order for the video endoscope to supplant the fibrescope it must not only equal it in all respects but must also surpass it in some significant way. This potential superiority hinges on the inherent versatility of the method by which the video endoscope obtains an endoscopic image. This leads readily to any number of methods of electronic and computerized storage, recall, comparison and transmission of endoscopic data, capabilities that can be used to advantage in many areas. In research that utilizes endoscopic methods it will prove invaluable; properly interfaced with other technological developments it can greatly increase the efficiency of an endoscopy unit. Remarkable as these possibilities may be, however, it is the prospect of computerized and electronic manipulation of the endoscopic images that most threatens the position of the fibrescope. If emerging CCD technology provides useful methods of diagnosis that go beyond simple observation in the visible light spectrum, then the argument will be decided in favour of the video endoscope. What form this will take, and when it will come to pass, remain to be seen.