A Short History of Bronchoscopy

Abstract

In his article titled “ Entfernung eines Knochenstücks aus dem rechten Bronchus auf natürlichem Wege und unter Anwendung der directen Laryngoskopie” in issue No. 38 (September 1897) of Münchener Medicinische Wochenschrift. O. Kollofrath, assistant to Gustav Killian at the Poliklinik of Freiburg University, Germany, in the introduction to his report on the first bronchoscopic extraction of a foreign body wrote, “On March 30th of this year I had the honor to assist my admired principal, Herrn Prof. Killian in extraction of a piece of bone from the right bronchus. This case is of such peculiarity with respect to its diagnostic and therapeutic importance that a more extensive description seems justified ” [1]. To understand this statement, one must consider the state of the art of airway inspection at that time [2]. THE PRE-ENDOSCOPIC ERA Access to the airways in the living patient was tried already by Hippocrates (460–370 bc ), who advised the introduction of a pipe into the larynx of a suffocating patient. Avicenna of Bukhara (about ad 1000) used a silver pipe for the same purpose.

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