Revised 19 January 2009 Accepted 27 January 2009

The gastrointestinal tract is home to some of the most deadly human diseases. Exacerbating the problem is the difficulty of accessing it for diagnosis or intervention and the concomitant patient discomfort. Flexible endoscopy has established itself as the method of choice and its diagnostic accuracy is high, but there remain technical limitations in modern scopes, and the procedure is poorly to...

The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) Technology Committee provides reviews of existing, new, or emerging endoscopic technologies that have an impact on the practice of GI endoscopy. Evidence-based methodology is used, with a MEDLINE literature search to identify pertinent clinical studies on the topic, and a MAUDE (Food and Drug Administration Center for Devices and Radiol...

Endoscopy was performed in 194 patients who presented with upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage from January 1986 through June 1987. A cause of bleeding was identified in 187 cases (96.4%). The most common cause was duodenal ulcer which was evident in 84 cases (43.3%). Endoscopic proof of bleeding was seen in 122 patients (65.2%) while an assumed cause was designated in 65 cases (34.8%). Endoscop...

BACKGROUND Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy is the most preferable diagnostic examination for patients over fifty when upper gastrointestinal symptoms appear. However, limited knowledge exists in concerns to the compliance of primary care patients' to the doctors' recommendations for endoscopy. METHODS Patients who visited primary care practices in Greece and experienced upper gastrointestina...

The rapidly moving technological advances in gastrointestinal endoscopy have enhanced an endoscopist's ability to diagnose and treat lesions within the gastrointestinal tract. The improvement in image quality created by the advent of high-definition and magnification endoscopy, alongside image enhancement, produces images of superb quality and detail that empower the endoscopist to identify imp...

One of the major frontiers in biomedical optics has been as an adjunct to gastrointestinal endoscopy. In particular, spectroscopy of elastic light scattering has the potential of addressing many of the vexing challenges confronting endoscopists. This review discusses the principles of spectroscopy and critically evaluates performance in clinically significant scenarios. One of the best establis...

Sedation allows patients to tolerate unpleasant endoscopic procedures by relieving anxiety, discomfort, or pain. It also reduces a patient's risk of physical injury during endoscopic procedures, while providing the endoscopist with an adequate setting for a detailed examination. Sedation is therefore considered by many endoscopists to be an essential component of gastrointestinal endoscopy. End...

INTRODUCTION Endoscopy has proven to be a most useful diagnostic tool in veterinary medicine. In the field of zoological medicine, the application of diagnostic endoscopy has shown great promise in a variety of species, including reptiles. The majority of previous reports describe the use of the endoscope to examine or retrieve foreign objects from the gastro-intestinal tract. There are some de...

INTRODUCTION Gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is currently performed by different specialties. Information on GI endoscopy resources in Nigeria is limited. Training, cost, availability and maintenance of equipment are some unique challenges. Despite these challenges, the quality and completion rates are important. METHODS Prospective audit of endoscopic procedures by an endoscopist in a Nigeri...