page_title: Speculum (medical)
section_title: Vaginal use
hierarchical_section_title: Speculum (medical) / Types / Vaginal use
caption_attribution_description: English: Medical instrument
context_page_description: A speculum, is a medical tool for investigating body orifices, with a form dependent on the orifice for which it is designed. In old texts, the speculum may also be referred to as a diopter or dioptra. Like an endoscope, a speculum allows a view inside the body; endoscopes, however, tend to have optics while a speculum is intended for direct vision.
context_section_description: The best-known speculum is the bivalved vaginal speculum; the two blades are hinged and are "closed" when the speculum is inserted to facilitate its entry and "opened" in its final position where they can be arrested by a screw mechanism, so that the operator is freed from keeping the blades apart.
  
  A cylindrical-shaped speculum, introduced in 2001, the dilating vaginal speculum (also known as the Veda-scope) invented by Clemens van der Weegen, inflates the vagina with filtered air. (see diagram) The device has two main functions: a) to take a normal Pap smear with a cervical brush or a cytology brush; and b) as an internal colposcope so that the operator can pivot the Veda-scope to view any part of the vagina barrel and cervix facilitated by an internal light source that can illuminate the vaginal wall and cervix with multi-coloured light filters, which can detect pre-cancerous cells with the aid of acetic acid solution and iodine solution. It also has a facility to attach a digital camera for viewing and recording. 
  A specialized form of vaginal speculum is the weighted speculum, which consists of a broad half tube which is bent at about a 90 degree angle, with the channel of the tube on the exterior side of the angle. One end of the tube has a roughly spherical metal weight surrounding the channel of the speculum. A weighted speculum is placed in the vagina during vaginal surgery with the patient in the lithotomy position. The weight holds the speculum in place and frees the surgeon's hands for other tasks.
  A vaginal speculum is also used in fertility treatments, particularly artificial insemination, and allows the vaginal cavity to be opened and observed thereby facilitating the deposit of semen into the vagina.
  Cylindrical shape
  Ferguson
  Glass speculum
  Veda-scope (dilating vaginal speculum)
  One blade
  Auvard
  Breisky
  Doyen
  Eastman
  Jackson
  Kallmorgen
  Kristeller
  Landau
  Martin
  Mathieu
  Polansky
  Samuel
  Scherbak
  Sims
  Weissbarth
  Two blades (bivalved)
  Collin
  Cusco
  DeVilbiss
  Grave
  Pederson
  Semm
  Seyffert
  Trelat
  Winterton
  Three blades
  Guttmann
  Nott
  O´Sullivan-O´Connor
  Polansky (veterinary use)
caption: Medical instrument
exif: {}