Gas obturating method

Abstract

Abstract A method of diagnosis and/or therapy of an internal part of the body accessible from an adjacent body opening, characterized by the use of an endoscope having a passageway therein which terminates in a tubular distal end insertable into the opening and into close proximity to the desired body part, and including the steps of: placing the tubular distal end of the endoscope at the proximal end of the body opening. While simultaneously introducing a gas under pressure into the passageway in the endoscope at a rate such that the gas entering the body opening ahead of the tubular distal end of the endoscope acts as an obturator facilitating insertion so that the endoscope may be moved longitudinally of the body opening, and performing an indicated diagnostic and/or therapeutic operation on the desired body part through the passageway in the endoscope during and/or after movement of the tubular distal end of the instrument longitudinally of the body opening. The method includes the additional step of visually examining the walls of the body opening through the passageway in the endoscope as the tubular distal end of the instrument is moved longitudinally of the body opening so that the walls of the body opening are examined before the instrument can have any traumatic effect thereon. The tubular distal end of the endoscope comprises a removable barrel suitable for a particular diagnostic and/or therapeutic operation and replaceable by a different barrel suitable for a different diagnostic and/or therapeutic operation. Thus, the endoscope may be used as an anoscope, a proctoscope, a sigmoidoscope, a coloposcope, a hysteroscope, a culdoscope, an amnioscope, a urethroscope, a cystoscope, a laparoscope, and the like. The barrel may carry an inflatable cuff where appropriate to provide a substantially gas tight seal between the barrel and the periphery of the proximal end of the body opening.

Inventors

• 👤 J Robertson

Bibliographic Details