Gastrointestinal endoscopy detects disease early

Dr. Vu Truong Khanh, Head of the Department of Gastroenterology, Tam Anh General Hospital, Hanoi, said that gastrointestinal endoscopy is considered the “gold standard” in the examination, diagnosis, and intervention of diseases of the upper and lower digestive tracts. Endoscopy with a soft, small-diameter tube with a camera attached to the tip of the tube helps doctors diagnose conditions of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, and colon.

The patient is given a light anesthesia, which is a short-term anesthesia, which helps the doctor complete the endoscopy procedure to examine the digestive tract, without missing even the smallest lesions. According to Dr. Khanh, this method has many advantages including:

Check the digestive tract carefully

Through the light and camera attached to the end of the endoscope, the doctor closely observes and examines the organs of the digestive tract such as the esophagus, stomach, intestines, colon…

According to Dr. Khanh, many gastrointestinal lesions are difficult to detect through ultrasound or X-ray but can be clearly seen through endoscopy. The camera magnifies more than 100 times with narrow band imaging (NBI) or LCI, BLI to help doctors clearly see the gastrointestinal mucosa, look for lesions, causes of bleeding and other problems.

Identify the cause of the disease

Some patients often have symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, pain or unexplained weight loss, constipation, diarrhea, black stools… These symptoms can be caused by many different reasons.

Thanks to endoscopy, doctors can quickly find the cause of symptoms by examining the intestinal mucosa, looking for growths, tumors and other abnormalities during the endoscopy. Correct diagnosis of the disease to have the appropriate treatment method, choose good treatment effect.

Minimally invasive biopsy

During endoscopy, if a malignancy is suspected, the doctor inserts various instruments through the endoscope to cut out small pieces of tissue from the stomach or small intestine or bile duct for biopsy. This is a minimally invasive cell biopsy that helps identify diseases such as suspicious lesions for malignancy, rare diseases such as celiac.

biliary obstruction

Gallstones in the common bile duct can easily lead to biliary obstruction, infection, and abdominal pain. Through oral endoscopy, the doctor uses an endoscope to remove stones upstream. Removing gallstones by non-invasive methods helps reduce symptoms and avoid complications that are difficult to recover from in the elderly and people with many underlying diseases. In cases of biliary obstruction, a stent can be placed to recirculate bile from the liver to the intestines.

Polypectomy and early cancer screening

The digestive tract may develop ulcers, polyps, or submucosal lesions. Polyps also commonly develop in the stomach, colon, and rectum. During an endoscopy, your doctor can look for polyps, identify the area, and decide whether to remove them.

Most polyps in the stomach are benign and do not progress to cancer and therefore do not need to be removed. In contrast, colon polyps such as adenomatous and serrated polyps have a high chance of progressing to cancer. These polyps need to be removed to prevent colon cancer.

Dr. Khanh recommends that patients with gastrointestinal symptoms such as unexplained abdominal pain, heartburn, burning behind the sternum, bleeding, signs of intestinal obstruction, blood in the stool, etc., should go to a reputable hospital with a gastroenterology specialist for early examination. Depending on the condition, the doctor will advise whether or not to have an endoscopy. People with no symptoms, no history of polyps, and no family history of gastrointestinal cancer can have an endoscopy when they are 40-50 years old, helping to detect cancer early and effectively treat it (if any).