Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy | Page 9

upward The closer is passed down under ocular control until the ring, R, is below the pin. The ring is then erected to the position shown dotted at M, by moving the handle, H, downward to L and locking it there with the latch, Z. The fork, A, is then inserted and, engaging the pin at the spring loop, K, the pin is pushed into the ring, thus closing the pin. Slight rotation of the pin with the forceps may be necessary to get the point into the keeper. The upper instrument is sometimes useful as a mechanical spoon for removing large, smooth foreign bodies from the esophagus.]
Esophageal Dilators.--The dilatation of cicatricial stenosis of the esophagus can be done safely only by endoscopic methods. Blind esophageal bouginage is highly dangerous, for the lumen of the stricture is usually eccentric and the bougie is therefore apt to perforate the wall rather than find the small opening. Often there is present a pouching of the esophagus above a stricture, in which the bougie may lodge and perforate. Bougies should be introduced under visual guidance through the esophagoscope, which is so placed that the lumen of the stricture is in the center of the endoscopic field. The author's endoscopic bougies (Fig. 40) are made with a flexible silk-woven tip securely fastened to a steel shaft. This shaft lends rigidity to the instrument sufficient to permit its accurate placement, and its small size permits the eye to keep the silk-woven tip in view. These endoscopic bougies are made in sizes from 8 to 40, French scale. The larger sizes are used especially for the dilatation of laryngeal and tracheal stenoses. For the latter work it is essential that the bougies be inspected carefully before they are used, for should a defective tip come off while in the lower air passages a difficult foreign body problem would be created. Soft-rubber retrograde dilators to be drawn upward from the stomach by a swallowed string are useful in gastrostomized cases (Fig. 35).
[FIG 38.--Half curved hook, 45 cm. and 60 cm. Full curved patterns are made but caution is necessary to avoid them becoming anchored in the bronchi. Spiral forms avoid this. The author makes for himself steel probe-pointed rods out of which he bends hooks of any desired shape. The rod is held in a pin-vise to facilitate bending of the point, after heating in an alcohol or bunsen flame.]
Hooks.--No hook greater than a right angle should be used through endoscopic tubes; for should it become caught in some of the smaller bronchi its extraction might result in serious trauma. The half curved hook shown in Fig. 38 is the safest type; better still, a spiral twist to the hook will add to its uses, and by reversing the turning motion it may be "unscrewed" out if it becomes caught. Hooks may easily be made from rods of malleable steel by heating the end in a spirit lamp and shaping the curve as desired by means of a pin-vise and pliers. About 2 cm. of the proximal end of the rod should be bent in exactly the opposite direction from that of the hook so as to form a handle which will tell the position of the hook by touch as well as by sight. Coil-spring hooks for the upper-lobe-bronchus (Fig. 39) will reach around the corner into the ascending bronchus of the upper-lobe-bronchus, but the utmost skill and care are required to make their use justifiable.
[FIG. 39.--Author's coil-spring hook for the upper-lobe, bronchus]
Safety-pin Closer.--There are a number of methods for the endoscopic removal of open safety-pins when the point is up, one of which is by closing the pin with the instrument shown in Fig. 37 in the following manner. The oval ring is passed through the endoscope until it is beyond the spring of the safety-pin, the ring is then turned upward by depressing the handle, and by the aid of the prong the pin is pushed into the ring, which action approximates the point of the pin and the keeper and closes the pin. Removal is then less difficult and without danger. This instrument may also be used as a mechanical spoon, in which case it may be passed to the side of a difficultly grasped foreign body, such as a pebble, the ring elevated and the object withdrawn. Elsewhere will be found a description of the various safety-pin closers devised by various endoscopists. The author has used Arrowsmith's closer with much satisfaction.
Mechanical Spoon.--When soft, friable substances, such as a bolus of meat, become impacted in the upper esophagus, the short mechanical spoon (Fig. 30) used through the esophageal speculum is of great aid in their removal. The blade in this instrument, as the name suggests, is a spoon and is not fenestrated as