Endoscopy is a procedure that looks inside the body using a flexible viewing tube with lenses, a small TV camera and a light on one end and an eyepiece on the other. Through fiber-optic technology and a video computer chip, the endoscope allows the doctor to examine the inside of the body. Some endoscopes can transmit the image to a video screen.

	Endoscopy allow doctors to examine the internal gastrointestinal system

There are several different types of endoscopy, and each type allows the doctor to check inside a different part of the body. There are upper endoscopies, which examine the esophagus, stomach and first part of the small intestines.  A bronchoscopy examines the bronchi (the larger airways inside the lungs), and lower GI endoscopies, such as a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy, examine different parts of the intestines and lower digestive tract. Each type of endoscopy uses a slightly different form of endoscope with a different name: a bronchoscope for bronchoscopy, a sigmoidoscope for sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscope for colonoscopy. Other forms of endoscopes allow the doctor to see inside the abdomen or joints without making the large incisions necessary in major surgical procedures.

Besides giving an inside view of your body, most endoscopes also have attachments that permit the doctor to take samples of fluids or tissues seen during endoscopy. In this way biopsies can be taken, and samples of lung fluids or stool can be collected for laboratory analysis. sigmoidoscopy and colonscopy are routinely used as a cancer screening procedure. These procedures check for tumors and take biopsis of tissue and fluids for laboratory analysis.

In addition to cancer screening, endoscopy is also used to remove foreign bodies from the airways or gastrointestinal tract, to check for areas of abnormal bleeding and to perform minor surgical procedures.