EDITORIAL The endoscope: new opportunities requiring new skills

Harold Horace Hopkins (1918 - 1994) was a renowned British physicist. His Wave Theory of Aberrations is central to all modern optical design and provides the mathematical analysis which enables the use of computers to create the wealth of high quality lenses available today. In 1960 Hopkins patented the rod lens system, which ingeniously changed the row of glass lenses interspersed by air spaces to one of air lenses inter- spersed by glass spacers. This led to an increase in optical effi- ciency of about 8-fold. First, Hopkins found no interest among British or American manufacturers for the rod lens, but Karl Storz saw the potential and it was he who in 1967 manufac- tured the first of these new endoscopes as part of a long and productive partnership between the two men. From than on the use of the endoscope in surgery of the nose, the sinuses and the skull base has evolved with enormous speed. In the 20th century most of the effort concentrated on the possibilities of the endoscope to functionally treat the sequelae of chronic rhinosinusitis. In the last decade atten- tion has shifted to more extensive use of the endoscope for the management of a variety of abnormalities in the nose, sinuses and in particular of the skull base