Endoscopy Procedures: Safe Methods for Exploring the Interiors of Hollow Organs

For more than three decades now, diagnosing a vast assortment of gastrointestinal problems has become easy for doctors. Thanks to endoscopy, a procedure that permits medical experts to inspect the gastrointestinal tract closely without the need for the very invasive exploratory surgery.

Typically, a small video camera or a bunch of fiber-optic filaments make up an endoscope. This instrument enables the doctor to look in one end and inspect what is at the other end. The endoscopy procedure begins by introducing the endoscope's thin, elongated, cylindrical device through one of the body's natural openings. This allows the doctor to observe, or even take pictures of, the interiors of hollow organs.

Endoscopy involves different specific procedures depending on which internal organ is to be examined. Gastroscopy is the specific procedure for observing the stomach or the esophagus. In this procedure, the endoscope's slender tube is inserted into the throat. Colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy, on the other hand, is the procedure used if the intestines are to be examined. Here, the tube is inserted into the rectum. To explore the bronchial tubes of the lungs, doctors use the endoscopy procedure called bronchoscopy. This procedure makes searching for possible tumors easy. The bladder and the uterus are two other organs that can be explored with the help of endoscopy.

Except for the tube's point of entry and the organ intended to be viewed, all of these endoscopy procedures are carried out in exactly the same way. To open the flexures of the internal organ, air is pumped through the tube. At the end of the tube is a small light to illuminate the area. Tiny instruments are then moved through a passage allowing the doctor to take tissue samples for diagnostic examinations. The invasiveness of any of the procedures is minimal and, for this reason, only mild calming drugs (sedatives) are used. The period of recovery is relatively short, too - only about a couple of hours or even less. Gastroscopy, in particular, requires only a local anesthetic (not a general one) to eliminate any physical uneasiness.

Before the advent of endoscopy, a number of diseases, such as stomach ulcers and certain cancers, were virtual scourges. But with the different endoscopy procedures in place, biopsies have substantially diminished the pain and decreased the number of deaths caused by these diseases.

Exploring the interiors of hollow organs isn't just what these endoscopy procedures can do - they can, in fact, alter them, too. Certain obstructions or abnormalities in the organs can be easily removed using endoscopic devices that are equipped with laser. Tumor cells, when subjected to laser, cease to exist. [Read the Original Article]