When should you do gastroscopy?

Diagnosis

The procedure enables the physician to clarify the causes for the following symptoms:

1. Upper abdominal pain
2. Vomit and nausea, vomit with blood
3. Difficult/ painful swallowing
4. Lose weight for no apparent reason
5. Indigestive (dyspepsia)
6. Pass black stool

Endoscopy is the most precise procedure to diagnose the reason for vomitting with blood. It is considered to be more accurate than X-ray for detecting inflammation, ulcers, early stage gastric varices and cancer. This way also helps the doctor draw up an appropriate follow-up plan for those who are diagnosed early stage cancer or pre-cancerous lesions. Besides, the doctor can use it to obtain tissue samples for examination in laboratory and confirm the diagnosis of cancer, intestinal metaplasia, atrophic gastritis, etc.

Endoscopic Device

At L’Hôpital Francais de Hanoi a narrow band imaging endoscopy is applied. This new technique enables the doctor to analyze the surface architecture of the epithelium and of the vascular network. It also allows a better characterization of distint types of gastrointestinal epithelia (intestinal metaplasia in Barret's esophagus) as well as the disorganization of the vascular pattern in inflammation disorders and the irregular pit pattern in early neoplastic lesions of the esophagus and stomach.

Treatment

This endoscopic procedure can be used to resect a redundant tissue (medical term: polyp), stop bleeding by drug injection or using a metal clip. To stop bleeding or prevent bleeding in a patient with esophageal varices, endoscopic sclerotherapy and ligation are effective.

How is it performed at L’Hôpital Francais de Hanoi?

It is usually performed by a gastroenterologist, who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the digestive tract. The patient initially needs to make an appointment with our gastroenterologist.

At L’Hôpital Francais de Hanoi, the endoscopic procedure is realized under general anesthesia. It means you will need to meet with our anesthesist prior to the procedure.

Patient is admitted as schedule

To perform the endoscopy, the doctor will pass a very small endoscopic device through your throat and eosphagus into the stomach. By this way, the doctor can view clearly the patient’s stomach. It lasts about 10 minutes.

The patient will be sent to Short Stay Unit for observation after the procedure. No feeling of throat pain or burning affects to the patient. Foods are served under the doctor’s instruction.

Emergency case includes bleeding, foreign body, acute pain.

What should you prepare for the procedure?

Empty stomach allows the doctor to view clearly the injury and do the procedure safely. The patient is thereby asked to refrain from foods for at least 6 hours before the performance. Let the doctor know if you are taking any medication, your medical history and know if you are allergic to any medication.

Does the procedure have any complication?

Endoscopy is a safe procedure with lower risk of complications when it is done by an experienced and skilled gastroenterologist in endoscopy.

For further information, please contact us at: (84-24) 3577 1100 or send us an inquiry here