In the 1950s the British gynaecologist K. Thomson was the first to apply the intracorporal electronic flash during a “Douglaskopie”. The flash tubes were large and had to be introduced through a second cut in the abdomen and the intensity of the flash could not be changed. The French internist A. Fourès modified this endoscope and constructed his endographe. In 1956, he gave a lecture on “La Laparophotographie en Couleurs avec l’Endographe de Fourès”. This device was also used by urologists, gynaecologists and proctologists. The urologist Willy Gregoir of Brussels worked closely with his French colleagues on this issue.
The German urologist Hans Joachim Reuter (1923-2003) introduced cysto-photography with electronic flash in Germany. Working together with the Richard Wolf Company at Knittlingen, Reuter presented the improved electronic flash photo-cystoscope with fiberglass illumination at a urology meeting in Ulm in 1966.
Photo-cystoscope with endo-vesical, electronic flash unit. Created by Richard Wolf, Knittlingen. Int. Nitze-Leiter Research Society for Endoscopy, Vienna/Reuter Collection