Laryngoscopy, bronchoscopy, esophagoscopy and gastroscopy provide a means of direct examination of the air passages and the upper food passages. Direct inspection, combined with certain supplementary measures, give positive information, leaving nothing to the imagination. In spite of these methods of objective diagnosis, little progress has been made in the treatment for certain conditions of the esophagus and bronchus; this is especially true of malignancy.
ESOPHAGOSCOPY IN DISEASE
Malignancy of the esophagus remains a practically hopeless disease. The mortality rate today is the same as it was when the first case was observed and described.
Chevalier Jackson 1 says that the thoracic surgeon has made little progress in the treatment of cancer of the esophagus because he never sees these cases in the early stage. The reasons for this are:
1. Every case of esophageal cancer is a medical case until it is too late for surgical cure,