Where is that camera going to go?!

Endoscopy is a procedure that lets us look inside your pet's body. It uses an instrument called an endoscope, or scope for short. Scopes have a tiny camera attached to a long, thin tube. The veterinarian moves it through a body passageway or opening to see inside an organ. Sometimes scopes are used for surgery, such as for removing a foreign object from the stomach. There are many different kinds of endoscopy.

Here are the names of some of them and where they look:

• Arthroscopy: joints
• Bronchoscopy: lungs
• Colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy: large intestine
• Cystoscopy and ureteroscopy: urinary system
• Laparoscopy: abdomen or pelvis
• Otoscopy: ear canal
• Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy: esophagus and stomach
• Vaginoscopy: vaginal area and cervix

At Memorial-610 Hospital for Animals, we routinely use endoscopy and a less invasive way to not only make a diagnosis, but also for treatments as well.  An example of a common procedure is to remove a small object from the stomach that a patient has swallowed.