Private and public Israeli hospitals are constantly improving diagnostic and treatment techniques in the field of gastroenterology. Medical centers, thanks to the generous funding of the health care system in Israel, are equipped with only modern equipment, and doctors know all the classical and advanced methods of conservative and surgical treatment of not only common diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, but also rare pathologies of the digestive organs. One of the leading medical centers in Israel for the treatment of gastroenterological diseases is Tel Aviv Medical Center.

Every year, specialists from the gastroenterology department of TAMS provide all the necessary assistance to thousands of patients, including foreign citizens who come for treatment from hundreds of countries around the world.

Our gastroenterologists have at their disposal modern equipment for minimally invasive surgical interventions, devices for clear medical visualization, for 3D modeling of the digestive organs under study, which makes it possible to make any diagnostic or therapeutic procedure highly effective and safe at the same time.

Minimal invasive robot surgical system in hospital. Robotic technology equipment, machine arm surgeon in futuristic operation room.

Departments

Gastroenterology Department includes several highly specialized units (clinics), each of it studies, diagnoses and treats a specific problem. This approach makes medical care highly specialized and highly effective, since a specialists working in a certain direction is well acquainted with the disease or their group, masters all modern diagnostic techniques, and also has a unique wealth of experience in treating a specific gastrointestinal pathology. The main areas of gastroenterology practice at the department:

General gastroenterology – specialists in this profile are engaged in primary diagnosis of all gastroenterological patients, as well as conservative treatment and diagnostics of the most common digestive system diseases.
Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases – gastroenterologists of this profile study, diagnose and treat such serious diseases as Crohn’s disease, chronic ulcerative colitis and other undifferentiated inflammatory diseases of large and small intestine.
Endoscopy department – in this department, patient gets access to all endoscopic methods for gastrointestinal tract examining, including video capsule endoscopy, and endoscopic interventions are also performed here, for example, stopping bleeding from veins of esophagus, biopsy of gastric or intestinal mucosa, etc.
Hepatology – specialists in this field are involved in treatment and diagnosis of liver diseases.
Clinic for pancreas and biliary tract diseases – doctors of this profile provide assistance to patients with pathologies of pancreas and gall bladder.
Department of esophagus, stomachs and duodenum diseases.
Pediatric gastroenterology – doctors in this area treat diseases, injuries and developmental defects of digestive organs in children.
Clinical dietetics – specialists in this profile help patients who need dietary nutrition to choose the right and balanced diet.
Gastroenterology Oncology – doctors are directly involved in complex treatment of patients with benign and malignant neoplasms of digestive system.

What diseases does Gastroenterology Department treat?

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Diagnostic methods in gastroenterology

Effective treatment is impossible without accurate diagnosis. Gastroenterologists at Tel Aviv Medical Center pay special attention to diagnostic stage. As a rule, a comprehensive examination of a gastroenterological patient lasts 2-3 days.

Diagnostic department has all the necessary – a modern laboratory and instrumental techniques for examining the patient:

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy – examination of esophagus mucous membrane, stomach, duodenum using an endoscope. At TAMC we use only modern flexible endoscopes, which makes the procedure well tolerated by patient. Endoscope is equipped with everything necessary not only for diagnosis, but also for carrying out minimally invasive surgical procedures, for example, biopsy of mucous membrane or stopping bleeding, etc.
Fibercolonoscopy – examination of large intestine from the inside using a flexible modern colonoscope, which allows us to perform not only photo and video recording of mucous membrane condition, but also various manipulations, for example, biopsy, stopping bleeding, etc.
Video capsule endoscopy is a modern technique for assessing the condition of mucous membrane of the entire gastrointestinal tract; using this procedure, you can even examine the small intestine, which is inaccessible to endoscopic examination. Patient swallows a video capsule, which moves through gastrointestinal tract and records mucous membrane condition (photos and videos), then is excreted naturally.
Virtual colonoscopy is a type of colonoscopy in 2D/3D format obtained after an MSCT examination (multispiral computed tomography). This study is a non-invasive diagnostic technique and allows, in some cases, to replace endoscopic fibrocolonoscopy.
Ultrasound of digestive organs (liver, pancreas, spleen, intestines, stomach) is an accessible, non-invasive, safe and informative method of digestive organs examination; it is always prescribed as initial stage of gastroenterological patients examination.
Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) is an endoscopic method that can be used for diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. In addition to visualizing the bile ducts, gallbladder and pancreas with radiopaque agents, stones can also be removed or, for example, lumen of bile ducts can be widened when they are narrowed.
Liver biopsy is the “gold standard” for diagnosing diseases of this organ. It is performed in an operating room by experienced specialists. Also in our department we have the opportunity to perform a “non-invasive liver biopsy” – this is a set of blood tests and ultrasound elastometry of liver, which allows us to accurately determine the degree of liver fibrosis and its causes. This method may become an alternative for patients for whom conventional puncture biopsy of an organ is contraindicated.
CT, MSCT, PET-CT and MRI of abdominal cavity with and without contrast are modern and highly informative methods of medical imaging that make it possible to accurately determine the type of pathological process and its prevalence.
Diagnostic laparoscopy is a modern method for diagnosing the pathology of abdominal organs using endoscopic equipment, which is inserted into abdominal cavity through small punctures in anterior abdominal wall. At any time, diagnostic laparoscopy can turn into a therapeutic minimally invasive surgical procedure, for example, removal of an inflamed gallbladder, adhesions in abdominal cavity, etc.
X-ray methods for examining the digestive organs – survey digital radiography of abdominal organs, contrasting the intestines, stomach with barium, irigoscopy, etc.

In addition to generally accepted diagnostic techniques, TAMC specialists also master innovative diagnostic procedures. For example, double balloon enteroscopy, which is performed using a special small-diameter enteroscope with a flexible tube, the advancement of which is facilitated by alternate inflation and deflation of balloons fixed on them. Using double balloon enteroscopy, doctor can not only identify the source of bleeding in small intestine, but also stop it, perform a biopsy, remove polyps and foreign bodies, identify stenoses of small intestine and eliminate them.

Important!

Until recently, it was possible to identify malignant and precancerous diseases of digestive organs mucous membrane only through a biopsy and subsequent examination of a tissue sample by a pathologist.

Now there is an alternative to performing a biopsy for diagnosing gastrointestinal cancer – confocal endomicroscopy.

Using a confocal endomicroscope, it becomes possible to examine and evaluate tissues microstructure down to the size of the cell nucleus. Confocal endomicroscopy helps speed up diagnostics and treatment for conditions such as intestinal cancer/ pre-cancerous condition, ulcerative colitis, Barrett’s esophagus, H. Pylori-associated digestive diseases, GERD and NERD. The research methodology is similar to conventional gastroscopy or colonoscopy, but with one difference: doctor does not perform a biopsy, but directly during the procedure examines the suspicious area of mucosa using a confocal endomicroscope. Thus, this new technique is not inferior in information content to classical biopsy, but is less traumatic for patient.

Modern treatment methods in gastroenterology

Today, Gastroenterology Department of Tel Aviv Medical Center has all kinds of conservative and surgical treatment methods of gastrointestinal pathologies. In addition to traditional drug treatment, diet therapy and open surgical interventions, our doctors actively use modern and minimally invasive procedures to treat gastroenterological patients.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a minimally invasive (low-traumatic) treatment for dysplasia and metaplasia in Barrett’s esophagus. Method is that “pre-cancerous” cells are destroyed under the influence of radio frequency waves. After their death, normal mucous tissue of esophagus is restored at this site. Today, RFA is the most gentle way to prevent esophageal cancer: deep tissues are not damaged, scars and subsequent narrowing of esophagus do not occur.

Minimally invasive surgeries are a branch of Israeli medicine that is developing at a rapid pace today, including in gastroenterology. TAMC surgeons successfully practice the following modern interventions:

laparoscopic liver resection;
endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography;
endoscopic closure of fistula between trachea and esophagus;
laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Robotic surgery for pathologies of gastrointestinal tract. The share of surgeries in gastroenterology performed using robotic surgical units is constantly growing. Today, robot surgeon of the latest version of “Da Vinci” is actively working together with its surgical operators, performing complex surgeries on digestive organs.

Not only surgical part of Gastroenterology Department actively uses modern developments, but also specialists in the field of drug therapy have achieved significant success. For example, application of modern biological drug ustekinumab (“Stelara”) for Crohn’s disease treatment allows one to achieve remission in patients with severe pathology, when all standard drugs and treatment regimens are ineffective.

This is only a small part of modern treatment methods that are successfully practiced by doctors at Gastroenterology Department of Tel Aviv Medical Center. If you have been diagnosed with any disease of digestive system, contact the best specialists in the field of gastroenterology who prectice and save people’s lives at TAMC.