Content area
Full text
Endoscopy is an important tool both in the diagnosis and treatment of complex pathologies (1). With the development of endoscopic applications, the feasibility of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions has increased and endoscopy has become the first choice method in the diagnosis and treatment of most diseases (2). Faced with this intense need, the number of endoscopic procedures that need to be done is increasing day by day. The use of advanced endoscopic diagnosis and minimally invasive endoscopic treatment methods for the gastrointestinal system has further enhanced the importance of endoscopy-based approaches. This new situation, which is related to the widespread use of endoscopy and the development of its field of use, has also led to a new problem of who should be performing endoscopy (2). In particular, the development of surgical approaches associated with Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES), endoscopic-based treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease, endoscopic control of gastrointestinal system bleedings, and endoscopic treatment of pancreatitis complications have become possible with the contribution of surgeons to endoscopy. Thus, the issue if endoscopy can be performed by surgeons as well as gastroenterologists should be evaluated by taking the impact of surgeons in the evolution of endoscopy into consideration.
HISTORY OF ENDOSCOPY
There are three different periods in the history of gastrointestinal endoscopy (3):
1. Rigid endoscopy period (1805-1932)
2. Semi-flexible endoscopy period (1932-1957)
3. Fiberoptic endoscopy (1957 and later)
The first data related to observe inside the human body begins with the use of the rectal speculum for the treatment of rectal fistula at the time of Hippocrates (4). It took hundreds of years for these first-use tools to become useful. Light reflection has emerged as an important problem for visualizing internal regions by tubes with two open ends. Philipp Bozzini, an urologist, was the founder of today’s endoscopes as the first to use an artificial light source, a mirror, with a speculum in the early 19thcentury (3, 4). Although Bozzini’s endoscopy systems have been used for vaginal, urethral, bladder and rectum imaging, its widespread use was made possible by Desormeaux (3). With the improvements in open-ended endoscopy systems, Adolf Kussmaul who was a surgeon extracted a foreign body from the esophagus using sunlight as a source of light in 1870 (5). Max Nitze introduced...