PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an endoscope apparatus capable of notifying that a treatment instrument has got close to a blood vessel, with the characteristics of the treatment instrument or the blood vessel taken into account and also to provide an operation method, etc. of the endoscope apparatus.SOLUTION: An endoscope apparatus comprises a distance information acquisition unit 120, an association degree acquisition unit 130, and a notification processing unit 140. The distance information acquisition unit 120 acquires the information of the distance between a specific site and a treatment instrument. The association degree acquisition unit 130 acquires a degree of association between the specific site and the treatment instrument on the basis of at least one of the specific site information, i.e. the characteristic information of the specific site and the treatment instrument information, i.e. the characteristic information of the treatment instrument, and the distance information. The notification processing unit 140 performs notification processing on the basis of the degree of association.【課題】処置具の特性或は血管の特性を考慮に入れて、処置具が血管に接近したことを通知できる内視鏡装置及び内視鏡装置の作動方法等を提供すること。【解決手段】内視鏡装置は、距離情報取得部１２０と関連度取得部１３０と通知処理部１４０とを含む。距離情報取得部１２０は、特定部位と処置具との間の距離に関する距離情報を取得する。関連度取得部１３０は、特定部位の特性情報である特定部位情報及び処置具の特性情報である処置具情報の少なくとも一方と、距離情報とに基づいて、特定部位と処置具との間の関連度を取得する。そして通知処理部１４０は、関連度に基づく通知処理を行う。【選択図】図１
