thoracoscope
Meaning of thoracoscope: A rigid lighted telescope passed between two ribs to look directly at the lung surface and its lining.
Definition of thoracoscope
A thoracoscope is a slim instrument passed between the ribs to view the space around the lungs. It carries a light source and either a lens system or a small video chip, and it sends the picture to a screen. Channels along its length admit instruments, so tissue can be sampled and fluid drained during the same examination.
How thoracoscope is built
- thorac/o Combining form · Greek chest, thorax
- -scope Suffix · Greek instrument for viewing
A medical term is read from its ending backwards: the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root. See all 223 word parts.
What is it made of?
Most thoracoscopes are rigid metal tubes a few millimeters across. Light travels down glass fibers wrapped around the shaft to illuminate the cavity, while the image returns through a chain of lenses or is captured by a chip at the tip and sent onward electronically. Rigid designs give a bright, stable picture and accept larger instruments. Flexible versions exist and bend around corners, at some cost in image quality and in the size of tool they take. Angled tips let an operator look sideways by rotating the shaft instead of moving it.
What can be done through it?
| Task | What happens |
|---|---|
| Inspect | Direct view of lung surface, chest lining and diaphragm |
| Sample | Forceps take small pieces for the laboratory |
| Drain | Fluid or blood removed and a drain positioned |
| Treat | A sealing agent placed to close off the space |
Why go between the ribs at all?
The lung is wrapped in two smooth layers with a thin film of fluid between them, and this pleural space is where fluid, air, infection and tumor deposits collect. Nothing outside the chest can see into it. A chest x-ray or a scan shows that something is present without showing what it is, and a needle drawing fluid off frequently gives an unclear answer. Looking directly, and taking tissue from the abnormal area under vision, settles the question in most cases.
How does it relate to keyhole chest surgery?
The same instrument underpins video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, in which two or three small openings replace the long incision and rib spreading of open surgery. Through them a surgeon can remove a segment or a whole lobe of lung, take lymph nodes for staging, repair a leaking air space or strip away part of the pleura. Recovery is quicker and pain less than after opening the chest. The optics are delicate, so cleaning, sterilization and careful handling between uses form part of the routine.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
The pleural cavity was inspected with a thoracoscope and several biopsies were taken.
Good to know
Direct inspection with a thoracoscope and biopsy taken under vision resolve many pleural problems that imaging and needle sampling leave undecided.
Word origin
Where “thoracoscope” comes from
From the Greek thorax, meaning chest, and skopein, meaning to look at.