Colonoscopies save lives. These procedures are used to detect colon cancer. Colonoscopies are done under sedation and take about 30 minutes.

During the procedure, your physician examines your lower digestive tract. He or she may take biopsies, or remove polyps in the large intestine.

At Enloe Health Digestive Health, our staff is committed to prevention and early detection of cancers of the colon and rectum. They follow national guidelines for appropriate and timely colonoscopy exams.

Also known as upper GI endoscopy, esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is done under sedation. It lets doctors examine and take biopsies, if needed, of the esophagus, stomach, and small intestine.

Your doctor will use an endoscope, a long, thin tool that has a light and camera at the end of it. This procedure can help find ulcers, infections and growths.

During this exam, your physician will place the endoscope into your mouth and down into your stomach.

During this procedure, you will swallow a pill-sized capsule. It will take pictures of your digestive system as it travels through you.

These pictures save to a recorder you wear. The capsule leaves your body through your stool in about three days.

This test can help doctors see conditions, such as bleeding and tumors, that are hard to detect. A video capsule endoscopy can also help diagnose Crohn’s disease, which causes inflammation, sores and narrowing of the bowel.

24-hour pH monitoring measures the severity of acid reflux disease. During this procedure, your nurse will place a thin, plastic tube into your nostril. It will travel down your throat and into your esophagus.

At the end of the tube there is a sensor that measures acidity.

The other end of the tube will remain outside your body. It will be connected to a monitor that records the pH levels for 24 hours.

During this time, you should go about your normal daily routine once you leave the doctor’s office. Be sure to keep record of any symptoms of reflux or any activities that seem to trigger it.

This test measures how well your esophageal muscles and sphincter valve are functioning.

During this procedure, your nurse will insert a tube through your nose and guide it into your stomach. Then it will be removed to measure the pressure changes.

You may take a few breaths with the tube inside you. Or you may take a few swallows of salty fluid to see how well your esophageal muscles are functioning.

The procedure lasts about 45 minutes and is not performed with sedation. This could affect how the esophageal muscles function.

This procedure is done under anesthesia. It lets your physician see the small bowel for bleeding, tumors, polyps or other issues.

If you have a small bowel enteroscopy, you will be given a sedative through an IV. Then your doctor will insert an endoscope into your mouth.

The tube will move through your esophagus, stomach and small bowel. This allows your doctor to examine the area.

If the doctor finds growths or abnormalities, he or she may remove — or biopsy — the tissue in question. But don’t worry — you will not feel this.

A small bowel enteroscopy usually takes between 1 and 2 hours. Please note that you will not be able to drive after this procedure, so you should have someone with you during your visit.

Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) is a highly advanced endoscopic procedure. It removes premalignant and early-stage lesions of the stomach, esophagus and colorectum.

During this procedure, a long, narrow tube is passed through the throat to reach a stomach lesion. The tube might instead be passed through the anus to reach a lesion in the colon.

Small amounts of fluid are injected into the areas of dysplasia (damaged cells). From there, diseased tissue is carefully removed.

If the tumor is located in your stomach, you should not eat or drink anything 8 hours before your ESD. If it is located in your colon, you’ll be given a prescription to prepare your colon.

An overnight hospital stay may be required when you have this procedure. You will have an upper endoscopy the following day. At this point, your doctor will evaluate the dissection sites for any complications.

Barrx, or barrx ablation, is a procedure used to treat Barrett’s esophagus. It is a condition that can result from having chronic heartburn or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The procedure uses radiofrequency energy to destroy abnormal cells.

Terminating these cells can prevent the tissue from developing into cancer. Once the abnormal cells are destroyed, new healthy cells can replace them.

If you are going to have a barrx ablation, you cannot eat or drink anything 8-12 hours before the procedure. During the procedure, you will lie on your side and a tube will be inserted into the esophagus. This is to deliver energy to the abnormal tissue.

It is important that you continue with your treatment for GERD as advised by your doctor. This will help prevent further damage to the lining of the esophagus.

Cholangioscopy is used when X-ray imaging from an ERCP is insufficient to diagnose or treat problems in the bile and pancreatic ducts. Used in conjunction with ERCP, cholangioscopy allows your doctor to examine these ducts.

In doing so, doctors can diagnose, take tissue samples and treat bile duct stones, gallstones, and narrowing or blockage of the liver ducts. It is also a vital diagnostic tool for confirming or ruling out cancer of the biliary tract.

During the procedure, you will be sedated and lie on your left side. A small endoscope will pass through a traditional endoscope down the esophagus into your biliary tract.

To prepare for your procedure, you should not eat or drink anything 8-12 hours before your procedure. You’ll need to make plans to have someone take you home.

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) treats clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections. These are infections that affect the intestinal tract. They can cause mild diarrhea or even severe inflammation of the large intestine.

During this procedure, your doctor will transplant healthy stool into your colon. This happens via a colonoscopy, endoscopy, sigmoidoscopy or enema. This procedure replaces good bacteria that have been killed or harmed, usually from the use of antibiotics.

Your doctor may use hemorrhoidal banding to treat internal hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoid tissues actually play an important role in eliminating waste. During bowel movements, hemorrhoids swell with blood and become larger. This protects the anal canal as stool passes. Then the tissues return to their normal size.

Pressure can also cause hemorrhoid tissues to remain swollen. If this happens, your doctor may perform hemorrhoidal banding. Whether done endoscopically or in the outpatient clinic, this procedure removes any internal hemorrhoids.

During this procedure, your doctor will tie off the hemorrhoids at their base. Blood flow to the hemorrhoids will be cut off, so they will shrink and die.