Endoscopy is a diagnostic and therapeutic procedure that enables the assessment of areas of the body, which are inaccessible or difficult for the human eye to examine.
It involves introducing into the patient’s body (through its natural orfices, or through a small surgical incision) a piece of a device, called an endoscope, equipped with a light transmission system (that illuminates the object to be inspected), a lens system (that transmits an image from the examined area to the observer) and an additional channel which allows the introduction of medical instruments and manipulators (for sampling and operating).
Endoscopy enables the detection of possible pathological changes within the examined organ, as well as the collection of material (such as swabs, tissue sections, secretions) for further examination – cytological, histopathological and bacteriological.
Endoscopes are currently widely used in veterinary medicine and, among others, can be introduced to:
- nasal cavities (rhinoscopy)
- ear canals (otoscopy)
- larynx (laryngoscopy)
- trachea and bronchi (bronchoscopy)
- stomach (gastroscopy)
- large intestine (colonoscopy)
- bladder (cystoscopy).
In SaskaVet Clinic, endoscopy is performed by a specialist with many years of experience – DVM Wojciech Kowalczyk.