title: Flexible endoscopes in thoracoscopic surgery.
abstract: Standard endoscopes for laparoscopy and thoracoscopy are rigid telescopes with a direction of view of 0 degree or 30 degrees. Because of the rigidity of the chest, a hybrid version combining a flexible and a rigid scope offers a possibility for a good view of the whole thoracic cavity. However, the image quality is inferior to that of rigid endoscopes.
authors.affiliation: Olympus Optical Co. (Europa) GmbH, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lüdtke
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D013525:Surgical Instruments; D020708:Thoracoscopes