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History of the Laryngoscope

A laryngoscope is a lighted device used to look inside the larynx, also called the voice box, specifically the vocal folds and the glottis, or the space between the vocal cords. The instrument is inserted through the mouth into the upper airway, which is the path air follows to get into and out of the lungs. To this day, the attribution of the laryngoscope's invention is contested in some quarters.

  1. Philip Bozzini

    • A few historians consider German physician Philip Bozzini (1773 to 1809) as the inventor of the archetypal laryngoscope in 1805, when he came up with a tube he called Lichtleiter (light guiding instrument) used to examine the urinary tract. However, Bozzini generally is associated with the invention of the endoscope, which serves a more general purpose; the laryngoscope is indeed a type of endoscope, designed for a specific function. It also did not help Bozzini's chances of being recognized as an inventor of anything, let alone the laryngoscope, when the medical world at the time dismissed his findings.

    Benjamin Guy Babington

    • Around 1829 or 1830, British physician Benjamin Guy Babington (1794 to 1866) came up with an instrument that combined an epiglottic retractor and laryngeal mirror, the latter feature drawn from an 18th-century French obstetrician. He later improved on the invention by replacing the retractor with a polished stainless steel mirror.

    Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García

    • It was Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García (1805 to 1906), however, who was the first to see his own larynx in 1854, using a dental mirror---or so he claimed. He published his observations the next year, composed in prose convincing enough for the University of Konigsberg to eventually award him with an honorary medical degree. Ironically, Garcia was no doctor: He was a singer from Spain curious about how his vocal cords worked.

    Turck and Czermak

    • Garcia's findings were deemed questionable when Ludwig Turck (1810 to 1868), professor of laryngology in Vienna, Austria, decided to use Garcia's mirror to examine patients and gave up after a few months, finding absolutely nothing. Picking up from where Turck left off, Johann Czermak (1828 to 1873), a professor of physiology at Pest, Hungary, borrowed Turck's mirrors and used magnified candlelight. Finally, in mid-1858, Czermak made his findings known to the medical community at Vienna. Turck was furious that such an opportunity had passed him by because Czermak was claiming to be the first person to see a larynx.

    Further Developments

    • Despite murky beginnings, future physicians made improvements to the laryngoscope. Adelbert von Tobold (1827 to 1907), designed a steel and glass syringe, paving the way for direct laryngoscopy--in which the instrument is inserted into the patient's mouth while he is lying down; it moves the tongue to one side. Gustav Killian (1860 to 1921) suspended the patient's head to do his observations (suspension laryngoscopy), which led to the invention of an adjustable suspension apparatus designed like a gallows to attach the laryngoscope.

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