• The medical technology allows your doctor to see inside your body and evaluate the upper and lower digestive tract.
• ERCP can be performed for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons.
Image: FILE
Perhaps you have been experiencing bloating, unexplained weight loss, bleeding and change in bowel habits but you don’t know exactly what the problem is.
Well, doctors at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital can now diagnose the problem using a camera.
The facility has unveiled advanced endoscopy tower, a specialised technology that gives the doctor a more detailed view of your digestive system and eliminates the need for traditional surgery or large incisions.
An endoscope is a thin, flexible tube that has a tiny camera and light at the end of it.
It gives the doctor access to your digestive tract using existing body openings.
The advanced endoscopy tower has the ability to perform upper endoscopy (OGD), colonoscopy, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS).
The medical technology employs the use an endoscope, which is a long, thin tube with a camera that allows your doctor to see inside your body and evaluate the upper and lower digestive tract.
ERCP procedure is used to diagnose and treat problems in the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, and pancreas including gallstones, inflammatory strictures (scars), leaks from trauma or surgery and cancer.
It combines X-ray and the use of an endoscope.
ERCP can be performed for diagnostic and therapeutic reasons.
Some of these procedures currently available in major private hospitals cost as much as Sh850,000.
“These advanced procedures will be available at a reduced cost Sh100,000 at KUTRRH, with the cost being fully borne by NHIF for registered members and their beneficiaries,” hospital’s board chairperson Prof Olive Mugenda said.
“This will go a long way in availing high quality specialised care to all in line with the government’s efforts towards universal health coverage,” she added.
According to the medics at the facility, endoscopic ultrasound is a minimally invasive procedure that uses a camera device (endoscope) together with high frequency sound waves (ultrasound) to diagnose conditions in the upper GI tract (esophagus, stomach and duodenum) and the lower GI tract (rectum).
It can also diagnose conditions in nearby organs including the pancreas, liver and gallbladder. Combined with Doppler imaging, nearby blood vessels can also be evaluated.
“Endoscopic ultrasound works similar to abdominal ultrasound, except the source of the sound waves is inside your body,” a statement from the hospital reads.
As the high frequency sound waves travel from the echoendoscope, they hit tissues of various density and bounce back.
Endoscopic ultrasound can pick up outlines of a tumour or a cyst, which the computer then processes and displays as lighter and darker areas on the screen.
“Because the sound waves don’t need to pass through the skin and muscle to reach internal organs, endoscopic ultrasound offers a better view of the GI tract and nearby organs than abdominal ultrasound.”
It may also be more precise in identifying small tumours and cysts that other imaging methods such as MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT (computerised tomography) can miss.
Endoscopes provide an unparalleled view into a patient's body and enable minimally invasive procedures, but they don't work alone.
Between the camera that captures images and the monitor that displays the output stands the endoscopy tower, the brains behind the scope.
Advanced endoscopy makes it possible to get a very detailed view of affected organs, accurately collect samples for diagnosis and deliver very focused treatments, even in small, hard-to-reach areas.