The KTPH Digestive Disease service treats patients with problems of the digestive tract (esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon and rectum). This also includes problems of the pancreas, liver and gallbladder, which are involved in producing digestive secretions.
Diseases of the digestive tract may result in symptoms such as:
- Acid reflux and heartburn
- Loss of appetite
- Swallowing problems
- Unintentional weight loss
- Anemia (low blood count)
- Sensation of bloating or indigestion
- Pain in any area of the abdomen
- Bleeding from the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. blood seen or detected in stool samples)
- Change in one's usual bowel habit
- Chronic diarrhoea or constipation
The common conditions which we treat are:
- Peptic ulcer disease
- Polyps of the stomach
- Investigation of anemia
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
- Helicobacter pylori infection
- Colorectal cancer / colon polyp screening and surveillance
- Cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, colon, pancreas and gallbladder
- Inflammatory bowel disease (Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease)
- Pancreatic diseases (pancreatitis, tumors, cysts)
- Evaluation of elevated cancer markers (Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) and Ca19-9)
- Haemorrhoids
Gastrointestinal diseases are evaluated with the use of abdominal scans and endoscopy. Abdominal scans include computed tomography (CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreatography, CT enteroclysis, CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy) and contrast studies.
Another frequently performed test is the Urea Breath Test, which screens for the presence of an infection in the stomach called
Helicobacter pylori.
Our doctors also perform cancer screening (gastric cancer and colorectal cancer) as a form of preventive medicine.
