Members of the medical community, certain medical device manufacturers and government regulatory agencies are allowing patients to spend an extra $15 billion dollars a year by allowing unnecessary, ...

Survival rates for upper gastrointestinal cancers are poor and oesophageal cancer incidence is increasing. Upper gastrointestinal cancer is also often missed during examinations; a predicament that ...

Among individuals with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a negative upper endoscopy is associated with decreased risk in incidence and mortality from gastrointestinal cancer. The benefit ...

Nat Clin Pract Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2006;3(10):534-535. When considering the value of early endoscopy in upper gastrointestinal bleeding, we must first examine the overall value of endoscopy in this ...

Administering a lidocaine lollipop as a single-agent anesthetic to patients undergoing an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy procedure eliminated the need for sedation in the majority of patients. Upper ...

Here are the 2010 CMS reimbursement rates for five GERD-related upper endoscopy procedures in the ASC setting. 1. Esophagoscopy, rigid or flexible; diagnostic, with or without collection of specimen(s ...

Use upper endoscopy wisely Inappropriate endoscopy use generates unnecessary costs and exposes patients to harms without improving outcomes. Although upper endoscopy is commonly used in the diagnosis ...

Some endoscopy physicians may deliberately perform endoscopies on different days to avoid bundling and the associated reduction of payment, according to an Internal Medicine News report. Researchers ...

Doctors may perform an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy to diagnose and help treat stomach ulcers. During the procedure, a healthcare professional inserts an endoscope through the mouth and into the ...

I recently commented on the tragedy that had befallen patients at UCLA. Much attention was given to CRE infection, but the real culprit, contaminated scopes, was not well described. While the below ...