It is believed that for good health, proper functioning of the digestive system is very important. Nowadays, lifestyle changes, living patterns, and unhealthy diet has led to an increase in the occurrence of diseases of digestive systems. Some of the common conditions associated with the digestive system are Gallstones, Crohn’s disease, Celiac disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Diverticulitis, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, and Haemorrhoids.
Gastro Sciences is a super specialty branch wherein the health issues of the digestive system (including all organs along the alimentary canal) are addressed.
The Department of Gastro Sciences at CK Birla Hospitals Jaipur has a team of expert Gastroenterologist, gastro surgeons, consultants, technicians, and nurses who work together to provide all services related to the treatment of gastrointestinal and digestive diseases using the state-of-the-art equipment. Moreover, the department is supported with round-the-clock functional modern Operation theatres, general wards, Trauma Intensive Care Units (TICU), High Dependency Units (HDU), Intensive Care Units (ICU), and Endoscopy suites that are well-supplied with Critical Care and Anaesthesia to manage the challenging gastrointestinal problems.
This makes CK Birla Hospital a leading choice for those seeking the best gastro hospital in Jaipur and a premier gastroenterology hospital in Jaipur. The facility is dedicated to providing comprehensive care tailored to various digestive health issues, ensuring patients receive the highest standard of medical attention.
Endoscopic Variceal Banding
It is a non-invasive, ligation technique wherein the endoscopes having special cameras, tiny instruments, and elastic rings are inserted inside the gastrointestinal tract. The cameras help in providing real-time pictures of the affected part and in placing the rings (seen as rubber bands) around the affected veins to treat esophageal varices with high chances of rupturing.
Intraoperative Gastrointestinal Endoscopy
The surgeons use the endoscopy techniques before starting their surgical procedure to improve the results by providing the needed clinical information. It helps in the instantaneous inspection of fundoplication (carried for gastro-esophageal reflux) and aids in addressing the technical deficiencies.
Biliary Stenting: In the treatment completely or partially blocked bile duct, a specially designed plastic or metallic tube called a biliary stent is used by the doctors to allow the duct to remain open. This restores the flow of bilirubin into the duodenum, thereby helping in the digestion process.
Gastrointestinal Stent Endoscopic Sphincterotomy (EST)
In this procedure, the stones are taken out from the common bile duct using a special metallic tube (stent) to keep the duct open.
Surgical Gastroenterology
The gastrointestinal surgical team treats the abdominal problems by performing conventional or laparoscopic surgeries for esophagus, cardiomyopathy, fundoplication, and esophagectomy.
Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is a diagnostic and treatment method used for diseases of the biliary system, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas.
Hepatology
It is a medicinal branch that focuses only on liver diseases and their related conditions.
Interventional Radiology
It is an imaging technique that makes use of radiations to produce images of the internal body system. These high-quality images help in diagnosing diseases and injuries and also carry out different interventional medical procedures. It helps in diagnosing and treating cancer and other health conditions without performing major surgeries.
Gastrointestinal Oncology
This unit of the department focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of malignant conditions of the esophagus, biliary tract, liver, small intestine, pancreas, gall bladder, colon, anus, and rectum.
Minimal Access Surgery
Nowadays, this is the common approach for treating a wide range of gastrointestinal conditions such as diaphragmatic hernias and for performing anti-reflux procedures. It involves the use of laparoscopy that requires the making of small incisions rather than long cuts, thereby making the overall procedure less painful and allowing quick recovery and minimum complications.
Emergency Services
This includes surgery for abdominal injuries. The most commonly performed operations are of the pancreas, liver, lumen of the alimentary canal (i.e. from the esophagus to rectum), and biliary tract. Our experts also deal with the correction of surgical complications.
GI surgery department at Rukmani Birla Hospital is recognized as the center of excellence for advanced laparoscopic, gastrointestinal, bariatric and metabolic surgeries.
The department has a special focus on complex hernia surgery, abdominal wall reconstruction, bariatric surgery, Whipple surgery, and other complex gastro surgery.Our Department of Gastro-Intestinal Surgery at RBH has state-of-the-art advanced modular laparoscopic theatre equipped with facilities to carry out all emergency and elective Gastro-Intestinal surgeries. The Department of GI surgery provides facilities to carry out the whole spectrum of GI, liver & pancreatic surgeries like cancer of esophagus, Stomach, Intestines, Gall bladder, liver and pancreas along with bariatric Surgeries. All the surgeries are successfully and regularly performed laparoscopically also.
We perform various basic and complex surgeries including-
Cancer Surgeries
Bariatric / Metabolic Surgeries
Other GI Surgeries
Emergency Gastro Care
A well-equipped paramedic ambulance team offers the preliminary care in any Gastro-Intestinal emergencies, including Gl bleeding & acute abdominal pain. A highly experienced emergency team well trained for the initial resuscitation of the patient supports the RBH emergency department.
Laparoscopic Surgery
Laparoscopy has become a gold standard for treatment of many abdominal problems. The department is routinely doing most of the basic and advanced laparoscopic procedures. The advantages of laparoscopy are fast recovery, less post-operative pain, minimal blood loss, less hospital stay, better cosmetic results and early return to work.
Basic laparoscopic procedures performed are:
Bariatric Surgery
Bariatric Surgery is also known as Weight loss surgery. Bariatric Surgery limits the amount of food the stomach can hold or limits the absorption of nutrients causing the body to lose a considerable amount of weight. Bariatric Surgery has provided the longest period of sustained weight loss for patients for whom all other therapies have failed. Along with obesity, it also treats other co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension,dylipedimia ,obstructive sleep apnoea and certain other ailments.
Jaipur,17th March 2018. CK Birla Hospital Jaipur has launched Rajasthan’s First state- of- art Gastro physiology Lab. Dr. Abhinav Sharma, Director, Department Gastroenterology and Hepatology said, "such high-end G.I. Physiology test would help in diagnosing G.I, functional diseases with great ease and clear results.
The machine incorporated is fully computerized and is painless due to its patient-friendly design. This lab, definitely, is going to serve as an advantage for patients with Gastrointestinal problems.” The main highlights of this lab are its Breath, tests pH metry and manometry tests through which various G.I. functional diseases can be diagnosed easily and quickly.
Breath Test – Used for people with symptoms like abdominal pain, bloating, distention, flatulence and diarrhoea. pH Metry test – For identifying the cause of various symptoms like heartburn, GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), such as chest pain, chronic cough and asthma. Manometry –for people with symptoms like difficulty and pain in swallowing, heartburn, food coming back in throat, vomiting and indigestion in children. Dr. Abhinav Sharma explained that as the study of the human body is based on anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry science, similarly intestine is divided into gastrointestinal anatomy, physiology and biochemistry. Anatomy is the study of the structure and relationship between body parts. Physiology is the study of the function of body parts and the body as a whole.
To detect and diagnose chronic and critical health conditions and diseases such high-end tests are also categorized anatomically, physiologically and biochemically. Then he said that today medical fraternity uses common diagnostic tests like CT scan, MRI, Barium test and sonography to diagnose and identify gastrointestinal problems like obstruction in the intestine, cyst, cancer, T.B and many others. Even endoscopy procedure is used for digestive tract problems like ulcers, chronic constipation and others. But, unfortunately, till today, tests related to gastrointestinal functional diseases were not available in Rajasthan.
Moreover, the provision for such high-end tests in India is only available in selected cities. But, now at CK Birla hospital RBH, Rajasthan’s first G.I.physiology lab has been launched to overcome this problem. Dr. Anil Kumar Jangid, Consultant Gastroenterology said about the time duration taken for each test. Like, Manometry test takes about 15 to 30 minutes, breath test about 2 to 4 hours and pH metry around 24 hours.
What is Alcoholic fatty disease and how is it treated?
Liver diseases are very common these days. Factors such as dietary habits, environmental pollution, consumption of alcohol and drugs are few of the things that affect the normal functioning of the liver which further causes liver diseases. The main function of the liver is to remove toxicity from the blood, help in digestion of food especially fats (helps in breaking down fats), stores sugar for energy, and helps in production of proteins that helps in blood clotting. Liver diseases can be genetic or it can be due to the reckless lifestyle of a person. Alcoholic liver disease is one such disease which is caused due to the lifestyle of a person. People who are habitual drinkers and their consumption of alcohol is off the charts are usually the candidates of alcoholic liver disease. Alcohol if taken in small amounts is usually digested and broken down by the body naturally but when it's consumption is increased at a faster rate (or regularly) then it damages the liver cells. To some extent the body is able to recover from this damage through its natural immunity but when it occurs consistently then the body is not able to cope up with such harmful changes; as a result it causes liver cancer or diseases such as alcoholic liver disease.
Alcoholic liver disease
There are majorly 3 types of alcoholic liver disease that is caused due to heavy drinking.
Fatty liver is a condition in which fat builds up inside the liver cells that leads to an enlarged liver. This is one of the most commonly caused alcohol induced level problems which is found among various individuals all across the globe.
Alcoholic cirrhosis is another condition in which excessive consumption of alcohol causes destruction of the normal liver tissue that leaves scars. This scarring of tissues in the liver causes a lot of pain and bleeding in most of the cases.
Alcohol hepatitis is one such condition that causes acute inflammation of the liver. This is a severe condition in which the cells are damaged beyond the limit that it causes permanent scarring( kills liver cells).
Cause:
The primary reason for fatty liver disease is excessive consumption of alcohol that disrupts the natural process of breaking down alcohol. Generally, alcoholic hepatitis, and alcoholic cirrhosis are caused due to long term alcohol abuse that completely damages the liver cells( beyond repair).
Symptoms:
Some of the commonly found symptoms for fatty liver disease include:
Treatment:
Quit drinking: Abstinence from alcohol is the first step of the treatment; so that it can stop further damage to the liver. Also it is necessary to quit drinking so that the medicines can work properly because if the person continues to drink then the medicines won't work.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and medications: CBT and medications are done together so that people who abstain themselves from drinking do not face withdrawal symptoms due to alcohol dependency. Prolonged exposure to alcohol makes the body habitual and sudden obstruction might cause severe damage to the organs that might lead to life threatening conditions.
Lifestyle changes: Change in lifestyle and dietary habits, often leads to change in health of a person. According to various studies, changes in lifestyle habits have helped a lot of people suffering from various chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, hypothyroidism, diabetes and liver related issues as well.
Liver transplant: In cases where medications and rehabilitation does not work and the liver damage is severe that causes liver failure or liver cancer, then liver transplant is the only option left for survival.
What is fatty liver disease and how is it treated?
Liver is the second largest organ in our body which is responsible for various important functions and without which the body can't work properly. Liver is important for our body as it helps in digesting food, especially fats as it produces bile juice that helps in digestion of fat. It also helps in storing energy and plays a major role in the detoxification of the blood. The harmful chemicals or drugs that are ingested by our body are usually looked after by the liver so that it does not harm the body.
Whenever there is any problem, injury, infection, disease or disorder in the liver then all these functions get hampered that might cause problems in the functioning of the liver that might lead to life threatening conditions. Fatty liver disease is one of those conditions in which excessive amounts of fat get built up in the liver. Fatty liver acid disease is basically of two major types.
Non Alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
Non alcoholic fatty liver disease is a condition which is not caused due to heavy alcohol consumption. It is a condition in which the fat in the liver is little and there is no inflammation or liver damage that can lead to extreme liver condition or liver damage, this condition is usually called the simple fatty liver disease. Whereas in Non Alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) the liver gets swollen or inflamed and there is a considerable amount of liver damage that causes fibrosis or scarring. It is a serious disease that might lead to liver cancer or cirrhosis.
Alcoholic fatty liver disease or alcoholic steatohepatitis
As the name suggests, this disease is caused due to heavy alcohol consumption. People who are habitual drinkers are usually at a higher risk of getting alcohol fatty liver disease. The liver easily breaks down most of the alcohol but when it is consumed in large quantities and consumed regularly then the liver is unable to process and break it down, which causes damage to the liver cells, promotes inflammation and weakens the natural immunity mechanism of the liver. Timely diagnosis of this disease is important as it might lead to alcoholic hepatitis, liver cancer or cirrhosis.
Treatment:
Usually, the best liver doctors in India recommend weight loss for non alcoholic fatty liver disease as it helps in reducing fat present in the liver to a great extent. By maintaining a proper weight & by improving one's lifestyle and dietary habits; conditions such as liver inflammation and fibrosis can be treated in their early stages. Apart from this the doctor also recommends certain medications in order to cure the inflammation, scarring and damage of the liver cells. The best liver treatment doctor usually recommends to quit drinking in case of alcoholic fatty liver disease. In cases where the liver damage is extreme like cirrhosis and liver failure one might need to have a liver transplant from the best liver transplant hospital in India.
GI Cancers or Gastrointestinal cancers is a term used to refer to the group of cancers that affect the gastrointestinal tract of the body and other organs of the digestive system such as oesophagus, pancreas, stomach, colon, rectum, anus, liver, biliary system and the small intestine.
Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) is an endoscopic medical procedure which a flexible feeding tube is passed into the stomach through the abdominal wall to provide nutrition, fluids or medications to a patient who has difficulty swallowing.
Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography or more popularly known as ERCP is a medical procedure used to diagnose and treat conditions of the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts and pancreas.