How an Endoscopy Works to Help Your Doctor Diagnose Your Gastrointestinal Condition

Think about everything you learn from your eyes. They tell you when you’re approaching a solid obstacle so you can navigate around it. They inform you about how the people around you might be feeling based on their facial expressions.

With a trained eye, vision gets even more valuable. An experienced trade contractor can often spot problems in a house at a glance, for example. 

Diagnostic endoscopy plays on these principles. This diagnostic tool gives your provider a way to see what’s going on inside your gastrointestinal (GI) tract. 

Here at Cullman Internal Medicine, our team of providers provides endoscopies to diagnose a variety of gastrointestinal conditions. 

What happens during an endoscopy

An endoscope is a specialized instrument consisting of a flexible tube with a tiny camera on the end. We use this tool to see down your GI tract. 

First, you need to prepare for the endoscopy. That means fasting (i.e., abstaining from eating) for several hours beforehand. We usually schedule endoscopies in the morning to make this easier.

Then, we give you a sedative to help you relax or apply general anesthesia so you can sleep through the process. We also apply a numbing solution to your throat. Endoscopy shouldn’t be painful. 

Once it’s time for your endoscopy, your provider inserts the tube down your throat. Thanks to the specialized camera, your provider can see what’s going on in your upper GI tract. Additionally, your provider may use the endoscope to take tissue samples, helping us more accurately diagnose the condition(s) affecting you. 

Conditions we can diagnose with endoscopy

As we look down your GI tract, we can scan for signs that indicate conditions like:

• Celiac disease
• Crohn’s disease that impacts your upper GI tract
• Esophageal varices
• Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
• GI cancers
• Hiatal hernias
• Infections
• Stomach strictures
• Ulcers

Additionally, if we take a tissue sample, we can get it lab-tested to better understand what’s going on in your GI tract. 

After your endoscopy, your provider has a much clearer idea of what’s happening in your upper gastrointestinal tract. This allows them to either diagnose the condition affecting you or determine next steps to move toward diagnosis. 

Armed with the information we learn via endoscope, our team goes to work tailoring a treatment plan for you. We partner with you to help you get relief from your symptoms and, if possible, to cure or manage whatever’s causing that discomfort in your GI tract. 

If you’ve been dealing with issues like unexplained stomach pain, nausea, digestion issues, or anything else that seems like it could be coming from your GI tract, talk with us. Our team of gastrointestinal experts can identify the right diagnostic tool(s) to figure out what’s going on in your body. 

To discuss the right plan for your specific symptoms with us, call our office or book an appointment online today.