(BQ) Part 2 book “Cotton and Williams’ practical gastrointestinal endoscopy - The fundamentals” has contents: Colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy, therapeutic colonoscopy, resources and links. | CHAPTER 6 Colonoscopy and Flexible Sigmoidoscopy History The history of colonoscopy (Video ) started in 1958 in Japan with Matsunaga’s intracolonic use of the gastrocamera under fluoroscopic control, and subsequently Niwa’s development of the “sigmocamera.” Not surprisingly, these instruments had application only in the hands of pioneer enthusiasts. Following Hirschowitz’s development of the fiberoptic bundle in 1957–1960 for use in prototype side-viewing gastroscopes, several colorectal enthusiasts started developments. The first was Overholt in the USA, who started on prototypes in 1961, performed the first fiberoptic flexible sigmoidoscopy in 1963, and finally introduced a commercial forward-viewing short “fiberoptic coloscope” in 1966 (American Cystoscope Manufacturers Inc.). Meanwhile, Fox in the UK and Provenzale and Revignas in Italy had achieved imaging of the proximal colon with passive fiberoptic viewing bundles or side-viewing gastroscopes inserted through a tube placed radiologically or pulled up by a swallowed transintestinal “guide string and pulley” system. In 1969 Western researchers were surprised by the production by Japanese engineers (Olympus Optical and Machida) of remarkably effective colonoscopes, which combined the precise two-way angulation and torque-stable shaft of the latest gastrocameras with superior fiberoptic bundles, although initially the limitations of Japanese glassfiber technology restricted angulation to around 90° (due to fragile fibers) and the angle of view to 70°. Gastric snare polypectomy was first described by Niwa in Japan in 1968–9, and snaring of colon polyps was pioneered in 1971 by Deyhle in Europe and Shinya in the USA. In the mid-1970s four-way acutely angulating instruments were introduced, and in 1983 the video endoscope arrived (Welch-Allyn, USA). Although small-scale colonoscope production continued for a time in the USA, Germany, Russia, and China, the combined mechanical, optical, and electronic know-how
