Abstract
The principle of internal reflection in a glass medium has been thoroughly examined, and the application of this principle to medical instruments, well developed. Such instruments as the gastroduodenoscope, bronchoscope, esophago-scope and cystoscope all utilize internal reflection. In medicine the problem has been and continues to be how to transmit light inside the body and at the same time observe the illuminated area. Glass rods as devices for transmitting light are limited by their lack of flexibility. However, if the glass rods are drawn out to fibers with diameters in the order of tens of microns, they become quite flexible ; and if a sufficient number are fused together, there results an efficient apparatus for transmitting light with a surprisingly low loss of light (approximately 10% per foot of fibers). Medical instrumentation with fiber optics is now available in the forms of the flexible gastroscope and also a hypodermic fiber optics probe (1).
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