An oesophageal benign stricture: Endoscopy treatment limitation and surgical management in a heifer

The role of endoscopy in bovine internal medicine - A review of current indication fields

Endoscopy in bovine internal medicine has come a long way from the first profound research papers in the 1980s to its present-day use. This paper reviews the progress in the 2000s and identifies the main application fields for diagnostic and therapeutic use. Inclusion criteria for scientific papers and reports encompassed focus on endoscopic examination techniques in cattle in the field of internal medicine and publication in a peer reviewed journal (case report/review/original research paper/short communication). Only papers written in English or German language were considered. Studies on laparoscopy, theloscopy, and bronchoscopy show that endoscopic approaches often enable more rapid and accurate diagnosis and treatment options for single diseased animals as well as on a herd level. Oesophagoscopy, rumenoscopy, cystoscopy and thoracoscopy have also been increasingly studied and proven to be safe and effective tools with some limitations in diagnosing and/or treating various diseases in cattle. Scientific approaches explored the epidural space in cattle and comparison of different endoscope systems lead to recommendations for sinuscopy. Yet, this narrative literature review clearly shows that unlike in human medicine, where endoscopy as a minimally invasive technique is used for countless routine procedures every day, there is still some catching up to do in bovine medicine even though the potential of endoscopy in this field has been documented.