Build your own multipurpose, economically priced portable stereo microscope.

Binocular loupes and stereo microscopes are expensive items of equipment. However, inexpensive operating microscopes (ophthalmic) with coaxial illumination have been constructed for use in developing countries, where there is little medical funding. We describe one method of transforming economically priced pocket binoculars into a portable stereo microscope with nearly coaxial illumination.

Water used to visualize and remove hidden foreign bodies from the external ear canal.

Small foreign bodies lodged anteriorly in the tympanic sulcus are usually not visible, due to the curve of the external ear canal. Such objects can be seen with the aid of an otomicroscope and micromirror or with an endoscope, and removed by irrigation. If irrigation fails, epithelial migration on the tympanic membrane may remove lodged foreign bodies, although this may take months. Our new method, which uses water to locate small objects lodged in the tympanic sulcus, includes irrigation of the ear, adjustment of the water level to the middle curve of the external ear canal, and use of the water surface as a concave lens, making the tympanic sulcus visible. With otomicroscopy a curved ear probe can then be used to remove lodged foreign bodies from behind the curve.