OVERVIEW
Gastroenterologists are doctors who investigate, diagnose, treat and prevent all gastrointestinal (stomach and intestines) and hepatological (liver, gallbladder, biliary tree and pancreas) diseases.
This page provides useful information on the nature of the work, the common procedures/interventions, sub-specialties and other roles that may interest you.
Nature of the work
Endoscopy services for diagnostic, therapeutic, and screening endoscopy are developed and operated by trained gastroenterologists.
Upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is a skill that all specialists possess. The majority will receive training in lower GI endoscopy (flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy). Some will have had extra training in ERCP or small bowel endoscopy (wireless capsule endoscopy or enteroscopy).
Most will take part in acute gastroenterology admissions and treat a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders as outpatients or after admission.
i can treat those conditions:
- Bleeding in the stomach
- GI cancer anaemia is a disorder in which the blood’s haemoglobin (an oxygen-carrying pigment) levels are below normal.
- Crohn’s disease (inflammation of the digestive tract lining), ulcerative colitis are examples of inflammatory bowel disease (inflammation and ulceration of the lining of the rectum and colon)
- Jaundice is a yellowing of the skin caused by an excess of bilirubin in the blood and tissues.
- Alcoholic liver disease, viral hepatitis (liver inflammation induced by a virus), and autoimmune liver disease (where the body attacks its own cells)
- Inflammation of the diverticula is known as diverticulitis.
Common procedures
These include:
- diagnostic and therapeutic upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy
- small bowel endoscopy
- endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) – an endoscopic technique mainly used to diagnose and treat bile duct and pancreatic duct conditions
- endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)
- intestinal and liver biopsy
- paracentesis (puncture of the wall of a cavity using a hollow needle)
- insertion of parenteral nutrition line (intravenous feeding lines)
- planning and aftercare of patients undergoing liver transplant
Sub-specialties
Many gastroenterologists develop sub-specialty interests such as:
- hepatology (diseases of the liver)
- pancreaticobiliary diseases of the pancreas and biliary system),
- inflammatory bowel disease
- functional bowel disease
- tropical diseases
- gastrointestinal cancer and its prevention
- endoscopic surveillance
- upper GI disease (diseases of the oespahagus and stomach)
- small bowel disease
- pancreatic disease
- transplantation
- medico legal issues in medicine
- clinical pharmacology
- inherited cancer syndromes
- clinical nutrition
My locations
I can offer consultations in several locations across Mauritius. Some of them are: