Gastroenterology

Gastroenterology and Hepatology is a superspeciality that involves management of patients suffering from disorders of digestive system and liver. These patients may be suffering from simple problems like indigestion or dyspepsia, constipation, pain in the abdomen, jaundice, diarrhoea or difficult problems like blood in the vomiting or stools, liver cirrhosis, swelling abdomen, bile duct stones, cancers of gall bladder, pancreas, food pipe, stomach or intestineThe Department of Gastroenterology at Oxford offers a wide range of inpatient, outpatient and endoscopic services to patients with gastrointestinal and liver diseases. The hospital has newly built a separate endoscopy suite, which is equipped with the state of the art video endoscopy system. The departmental mission is to provide an exceptionally high level of clinical care and emergency services to the patients.

• Diagnostic & Therapeutic Endoscopy
• Diagnostic & Therapeutic Colonoscopy
• ERCP Diagnostic & Therapeutic
• Liver Disorders
• Diagnosis & management of gastro intenstinal problems
• Gall Bladder Problems
• HCV, HBsAg & other related problems

About Outdoor and Indoor services

The department provides outdoor services daily (except Sunday). Adequate facility is available to admit patients. The department has its own high dependency unit (HDU), which provides critical care to relatively sicker patients. The department caters to emergencies by attending to patients presenting with various GI problems and liver disorders. There is round the clock availability of doctors to treat these patients. The department is ably supported by the ICU and GI surgery

List of procedures

The department carries out a number of procedures, which are both diagnostic as well as therapeutic in nature. Various endoscopy procedures, which are regularly performed, include:
UGI Endoscopy: is used for diagnosis of diseases of food pipe, stomach & duodenum, like reflux, gastritis, ulcers & cancers.

Endoscopy Department

• Endoscopic Sclerotherapy: Injection of sclerosant in bleeding varices (veins in cirrhosis) and ulcers
• Endoscopic Variceal ligation (Banding): For ligating the varices
• Dilatation of Strictures: Dilating narrowed food passages
• Achalasia Dilatation
• Foreign Body Removal: It involves taking out foreign bodies ingested by using endoscope and accessories
• Endoscopic / Fluroscopic Placement of Nasojejunal Tube: To maintain the nutrition in sick patients
• Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy: This procedure is done for long term nutritional management of neurological patients who cannot swallow to maintain their nutrition
• Endoscopic treatment of bleeding peptic ulcers
• Endoscopic transmural pseudocyst drainageASD / PFO closure

Sigmoidoscopy & Colonoscopy : To look for diseases of large intestine like ulcers, tumors, polyps, and diverticulosis, AVMs and at times to treat these too.
Polypectomy : For removal of polyps which can be a cause of bleeding or having a malignant potential.

Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) : This is an advanced procedure which from a diagnostic tool has now acquired therapeutic dimension. Various treatments can be caused out using this procedure like :
- Bile duct stone removal
- Mechanical lithotripsy of large bile duct stones
- Placing plastic /metallic stents for palliating or bypassing malignancies or treating biliary infections.

Liver Biopsy : This procedure is done to diagnose diseases of the liver so as to give appropriate treatment.
Most of the procedures are done under conscious sedation so as to make the patients comfortable. Care is taken to sterilize the endoscopes properly to prevent any infections or cross infections.
Apart from this in house lab, pathology and microbiology are available to diagnose and treat the patients better. X Ray and Ultrasound is available on the patient’s bedside. State of the art spiral CT Scan is also available inside the hospital.

Hepatology (Liver related Diseases) : We provide the most recent and adequate treatment for most of liver related diseases namely Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Alcoholic liver Diseases, Fatty Liver, Acute liver failure, Congenital liver problems. Facilities are available for screening and prevention of many of these diseases.