Diagnostic and therapeutic services are offered to diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions of the oesophagus, stomach, intestines, bowels, liver, biliary system and pancreas.

General Health and Medical Screening is also offered to patients based on individual requirements. Different packages are created for patients according to needs, including history taking, physical examination and a wide range of tests including comprehensive blood tests, urine and stool tests, x-ray and ultrasound examinations, cardiology examinations and endoscopy.

Services are provided in a warm and comforting patient-friendly designer-decor consultation clinic, as well as in a comprehensively equipped endoscopy suite, imaging department, laboratories and in-patient wards of Gleneagles Hospital, all staffed by professional and caring specialists, nurses, technicians and ancillary staff. Patients are offered a holistic, highly individualised, personalised and efficient service, with much emphasis on team care, excellent patient communications and quality assurance.

What is endoscopy?

Gastrointestinal endoscopy involves the use of endoscopes. The endoscope is a thin, flexible tube fitted with a camera head and light guides. Designed to avoid discomfort, this gentle device moves smoothly through your gastrointestinal tract to provide a clear picture of the insides of your oesophagus, stomach, duodenum and colon. A 'gastroscope' examines your oesophagus, stomach and duodenum. A 'colonoscope' examines your large intestine or colon. A special kind of endoscope allows visualisation of the bile ducts and pancreatic duct.

The endoscope is a technologically advanced device designed with patient comfort in mind. As the fine, flexible tube is gently inserted into your body, true-to-colour images are relayed electronically and displayed in real time on a monitor. Photographs, videotape or DVD recordings can be made and given to the patient for future reference. Results of endoscopy are known immediately and in many cases patients be offered appropriate treatment at once.

Endoscopy is one of the most reliable methods of detection of gastrointestinal diseases. Physical examinations, x-ray or other imaging techniques and laboratory tests can offer clues to health problems. But endoscopy actually shows how your internal tissue looks, without surgery and with minimal risks.

A great advantage of endoscopy is that tiny surgical instruments can be passed through the endoscope to take biopsies, remove growths such as polyps, stop bleeding from lesions, insert stents (devices that hold open blocked tubes) and remove gallstones from the bile ducts. A laser fibre can also be passed down the endoscope to burn away cancers where appropriate. In other imaging methods, the doctor can only see abnormalities but can do nothing to confirm diagnosis nor treat them.

Is endoscopy uncomfortable?

Not at all. Modern instruments are very thin and flexible and designed with patient comfort in mind. Patients undergoing gastroscopy and colonoscopy are also offered local anaesthesia by throat spray as well as gentle sedation with intravenous injections of sedatives and analgesics, or an anaesthetic agent, carefully titrated to each individual patient. Patients are generally very comfortable throughout their procedures and usually awaken without any memory of having gone through them.

The sedation or anaesthesia used in endoscopy is very gentle (unlike the general anaesthesia used in surgery), and there are minimal 'hangover' symptoms after awakening. In fact, most patients undergo endoscopy as day-cases and are in the Endoscopy Suite or Day Ward for only a few hours at most. Many patients who have morning procedures can if they wish return to work by the afternoon. Only in more complex cases will patients need to remain in hospital for a longer period for observation or further treatment.

Is there much preparation needed for endoscopy?

For gastroscopy and examination of bile and pancreatic ducts, a patient only needs to fast for at least 8 hours prior to the examination, usually overnight. This causes minimal inconvenience.

For colonoscopy, in order for the endoscopist to see clearly, a patient needs to take some gentle laxatives prior to the examination to clear the bowels of all stools. A few hours must be spent clearing the bowels and this can usually be done comfortably at home.

* Reproduced with permission from Penny Nield and Brian Gazzard.
Patient Pictures -Gastroenterology. Oxford: Health Press, 1997.