Medical and Surgical Gastroenterology Procedures

Endoscopy is a simple procedure done for people who complain of heartburn, indigestion, regurgitation of food, belching, stomach pain, abdominal bloating due to gas, patients who complain of vomiting, patients with cirrhosis of the liver, those with malabsorption and chronic diarrhea, patients who vomit blood and those who have difficulty to swallow food. It is also a useful procedure in patients with anemia, loss of appetite and weight loss.

Conditions diagnosed by endoscopy include cancers of the esophagus and stomach, ulcers in stomach and duodenum, esophageal and gastric varices, infections like candida and tuberculosis. To do an endoscopy in the morning, just an overnight fast is required (about 8 hours fasting) and the procedure takes less than 1 minute. No hospitalization is required.

Colonoscopy is a procedure used to visualize the entire large intestine including a few centimeters of the terminal ileum. The procedure takes about 5-10 minutes and does not require admission. It is usually done as an out-patient procedure. It is useful for patients who complain of diarrhea, constipation, blood in the stools, colitis and lower abdominal pain. It is also useful to evaluate patients who have weight loss.

Diseases diagnosed with colonoscopy include ulcerative colitis, crohn's disease, tuberculosis, polyps, cancer of the colon, infective colitis etc. Therapeutic procedures like polypectomy, stricture dilatation and stenting for in-operable cancer of the colon can be done through colonoscopy.

Cirrhosis and portal hypertension patients display symptoms of nausea and vomiting of blood. Sclerotherapy of varices, esophageal banding of varices and glue injection of fundal varices are procedures to treat the above.

Difficulty in swallowing can be due to many conditions like cancer of the esophagus, peptic structure, corrosive strictures etc. Dilatation of esophageal strictures can be done with with balloon dilators and the procedure takes about 5-10 minutes.

For in-operable cases of cancer of the esophagus, esophageal stenting is done. This allows the patient to eat food easily.

Foreign body removal is used for children who swallow objects like coins, pins and adults who swallow teeth and dentures. These facilities are available in the endoscopy department.

Patients who vomit blood due to ulcers like gastric and duodenal ulcers in the past would undergo surgery. With facilities like adrenaline injection of the ulcers, argon plasma coagulation, most of these patients can avoid surgery.

Balloon dilatation is offered for patients who complain of vomiting due to pyloric stenosis or duodenal stenosis. Surgery can be avoided with the above mentioned facility.

Polyps are swellings which can occur in the stomach, small or large intestine. They can cause a lot of complications like bleeding, obstruction or can become cancerous later on. Timely removal of this by endoscopic polypectomy can prevent the above.

Vocabulary