Advanced Endoscopy

Our advanced interventional endoscopy program was started in the fall of 2012. Advanced interventional endoscopy is a subspecialty within the larger field of general gastroenterology and consists of technically advanced procedure-based interventions utilizing specialized techniques and innovative technology.

Endoscopies are procedures that are performed with specialized instruments consisting of medical tubes with a camera and a light on the end that can be inserted into a patient to evaluate the upper GI tract including the esophagus and stomach and also the lower GI tract to evaluate the rectum and colon (upper endoscopy and colonoscopy). Additionally, the interventional endoscopy service offers internal ultrasound evaluations allowing structures adjacent to the GI tract to be evaluated with internal ultrasound and safely biopsied to make critical diagnoses. Structures that can be evaluated include lymph nodes in the abdomen and chest, liver masses, pancreatic masses and cysts, diseases of the bile duct, among others. As such, our procedures play a key role in the diagnosis and management of many cancers.

Our program includes minimally invasive endoscopic surgical techniques. We are proud to be one of the first hospitals in the nation to perform the endoscopic submucosal dissection technique (ESD), which can often offer curative resections for superficial cancers of the GI tract such as early esophageal, gastric, and rectal cancer. Advanced endoscopic resections of large polyps in the upper and lower GI tract that, in the not too distant past would require large surgeries, can now often be managed with endoscopic techniques such as ESD or EMR (endoscopic mucosal resection). For appropriate patients with precancerous lesions such as dysplastic Barrett’s esophagus, we also offer the least invasive effective approaches such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and argon plasma coagulation (APC).

We provide endoscopic therapeutic procedures for management of bile duct stones, strictures, and masses through a procedure called ERCP. Through ERCP we can also place a camera into the bile duct itself using the Spyglass Choledochoscopy system, a procedure for our patients who require more advanced biliary endoscopic management.

Our program also performs the transoral outlet reduction (TORe) procedure for patients who have regained weight after gastric bypass surgery. This technique has been available for our patients since 2014 and involves using endoscopy to internally suture the stomach to once again help them achieve their goals.

These are just some of the wide variety of services that the Advanced Interventional Endoscopy service at MVHS offers at the new Wynn Hospital. The field of advanced interventional endoscopy is a young and exciting new subspecialty in the field of medicine. As such, new techniques and procedures are being offered year after year. We look forward to our future as we provide an even greater array of minimally invasive cutting edge procedures to our patients.