With the advanced developments in endoscopy, there is a new hope for patients to fight diseases ranging from obesity to cancer. The developments include robotic endoscopy — a step ahead of capsule endoscopy, which treats obesity through inflated balloons and endo-ultrasonography —a technique of ultrasound and endoscopy combined together.

Interestingly, now obesity can also be treated with the help of endoscopy without any incision. The technique of gastric bass surgery to remove extra flab would be taken over by endoscopic technique. In this, inflated balloons can be placed inside the patient’s stomach and kept for around six months. This would reduce the stomach capacity and, thus, lessen the appetite, ultimately resulting in the reduction of weight.

The robotic capsules can be controlled by remote buttons to stop bleeding and remove small tumors from intestines without any incision or surgery. Patients would be required to inhale a capsule which would not only release the pictures of the intestine but also help in the treatment of the disease. The capsule endoscopy available at the PGIMER is already popular among patients.

Dr Kulwinder S Dua, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology from Medical College of Wisconsin, said, “Laws of physics are being applied in the techniques of endoscopy. The objective of advancements in endoscopy is accurate and earlier detection and diagnosis of the diseases. These would soon completely overtake the primitive measures of surgeries involving higher treatment costs and risk to the patient’s life.”

The new technique of endoscopic ultrasonography, a technique of ultrasound and endoscopy combined together, uses tools to give images from outside as well as from inside a patient’s body. This technique is available at PGIMER which is the first hospital in the north India to have acquired this equipment.