The clinic's Endoscopy Department performs around 3000 diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopies in adults every year.

Patients with diseases of the entire gastrointestinal tract, including the pancreas and liver, are diagnosed and treated using the very latest methods and techniques.

The range of services provided by the department includes the following procedures:

• Diagnostic gastroscopies and enteroscopies
• Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography = ERCP (endoscopic exploration and imaging of the bile ducts and the pancreatic duct by injecting X-ray contrast media)
• Endosonography (endoscopic ultrasound examinations)
• Ultrasound-guided percutaneous liver biopsies
• We do, of course, also carry out all sonographies that form part of basic medical diagnosis.

Thanks to modern technical equipment, many interventions can be carried out using endoscopy.

Inflammation and bleeding of the stomach or intestines, as well as tumours and gallstones, can be diagnosed and immediately treated in a manner that is as gentle on the patient as possible. These special techniques include:

• Stent insertions in the gastrointestinal tract (oesophagus, pylorus and colon)
• Sclerotherapy and endoscopic rubber band ligation (treatment of varicose veins in the oesophagus, known as oesophageal varices)
• ERCP with the possibility of removing stones from the bile ducts, sphincterotomy (opening of the sphincter at the biliary orifice) or inserting drainage catheters and stents.
• Endosonography for diagnostic and therapeutic puncture and drain insertion
• Placement of special feeding tubes (PEG, jejunal tubes).
• Biopsies, excision of polyps (polypectomies), haemostasis in cases of acute bleeding (including argon plasma coagulation) and dilations are possible in all forms of endoscopy.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Case Discussions

Along with diagnostic interventions, we specialise in the treatment of gastroenterological emergencies and the joint treatment and aftercare of cancer patients in close cooperation with the Specialist Department for Haematology and Oncology. A customised treatment regimen is drawn up for each individual patient in a regular meeting known as the Tumour Conference, an interdisciplinary expert discussion panel consisting of  oncologists, radiologists, radiotherapists, gastroenterologists and surgeons.