Acute Assessment Unit
About us
Our service helps patients who have problems with their digestive system. Endoscopic procedures involve passing an endoscope (a tube about half an inch thick) into the gastro-intestinal tract via the mouth or anus so the doctor can look inside you and take biopsies if required. There is more information about endoscopy on the NHS website.
If you are an outpatient, you’ll need a letter from your GP referring you to a specialist doctor. They will determine whether you need an endoscopy or not and refer you to the team if necessary.
Endoscopy procedures
Gastroscopy: This enables a specialist to look inside your oesophagus, stomach and duodenum if you have conditions like swallowing difficulties, nausea, indigestion or chest pain.
You have to swallow a thin, flexible, lighted tube – the endoscope. It transmits an image to a screen. They will be able to see abnormalities that don’t show up on x-rays and can insert instruments into the scope to treat them or remove samples for tests. The procedure takes about 20 minutes and complications are rare. Find out more about gastroscopy procedures on the NHS website.
Flexible sigmoldoscopy: This enables the specialist to look at the inside of the lower part of the large intestine if you have issues such as diarrhoea, constipation or abdominal pain. They also look for early signs of cancer in the lower colon and rectum such as bleeding, inflammation and abnormal growths. The procedure takes 10-20 minutes and complications are rare. Find out more about tests for bowel cancer on the NHS website.
Colonoscopy: A specialist uses this to look inside your large intestine and check for causes or diarrhoea, constipation or constipation, and for signs of cancer. You usually need sedation and pain relief as a flexible, lighted tube is inserted and guided into the colon to transmit an image to a screen for the specialist to examine. The procedure takes about 30 minutes and complications are rare. Find out more about a colonoscopy on the NHS website.
Transnasal endoscopy: This is used to examine the upper part of your digestive system and is similar to an endoscopy, except a much smaller camera is inserted through your nose. The procedure takes 5-15 minutes and is usually carried out with local anaesthetic only.
ERCP: an endoscopic (inside your body) procedure that helps doctors to diagnose and treat disorders of the biliary ducts, pancreatic ducts and pancreas.
A doctor steers a flexible tube (endoscope), which is about as wide as a finger, through your mouth and down your oesophagus (the food pipe that connects your mouth to your stomach), through your stomach and into your duodenum (part of your intestine which can also be called the top part of your small bowel). As well as finding abnormalities, we also use ERCP to do some therapeutic procedures including taking samples (biopsies), inserting tubes (stents) to relieve a blockage, or removing gallstones. We can also use ERCP for other techniques, such as cholangioscopy. This is when a doctor passes a cholangioscope (mini-scope) through the ERCP to do a detailed assessment of ducts in your liver and pancreas.