Gastroenterology and Hepatology Center (Internal medicine)

メニュー

Patient Care

1. Our positive effort to provide advanced medical care centered on endoscopic treatments.

We actively pursue safe and advanced medical care giving first priority to “Do not put a strain on our patients”. We treat all digestive diseases including gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, large intestine), liver, biliary tract and pancreas.

2. Precise diagnoses of digestive diseases in cooperation with experts in diagnostic imaging.

Diagnostic imaging by ultrasonography, CT scan, MRI, angiography, scintigraphy, etc. is essential for examination of digestive diseases. We perform the examinations in cooperate with experts in every department. We aim to have more accurate diagnoses doing examinations together with experts who take advantage of advanced technique.

3. Diagnosis and emergent hemostatic treatment for digestive tract hemorrhage as a designated tertiary emergency care hospital.

Toho University Omori Medical Center is one and only designated tertiary emergency care hospital in Ota ward. Our department is equipped to provide emergency medical care as well. We deal with gastrointestinal hemorrhage in need of special emergency treatment all day and night in cooperation with our Emergency Care Center. We proactively make diagnoses of diseases in small intestines and treat them. For instance, we early perform a small bowel capsule endoscopy and/or a single balloon enteroscopy for small intestinal hemorrhage which is difficult to be diagnosed.

4. Notable advanced medical care in the field of biliary tract and pancreas diseases.

In the field of biliary tract and pancreas diseases, we mainly provide the following treatments.
  • Bile duct stone, pancreatic calculus: Endoscopic lithotripsy, Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL)
  • Malignant biliary tract diseases, IgG4-related diseases: Diagnoses with Peroral Cholangioscopy (POCS)
  • Bile duct / pancreatic duct stenosis: Endoscopic / percutaneous drainage, stent insertion
  • Pancreatic cancer / pancreatic cyst: Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Fine Needle Aspiration (EUS-FNA), endoscopic ultrasounds-guided drainage
  • Duodenal papilla adenoma: Endoscopic resection
In particular, regarding endoscopic resection of duodenal papilla adenoma and ESWL for pancreatic lithiasis caused by chronic pancreatitis, we are one of the nation’s top hospitals which are referred many intractable cases from other hospitals all over Japan.

5. Appropriate treatments for the full spectrum of liver diseases.

In the field of liver diseases, we treat properly and proactively all liver diseases including viral hepatitis, acute hepatic failure, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma, portal hypertension, etc. based on the findings of blood tests, contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, imaging tests such as contrast enhanced CT scan, liver biopsy, etc.
To treat chronic hepatitis C, we mainly use Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs). For the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, we choose nucleic acid analogues, interferon, etc. To treat portal hypertension accompanying cirrhosis, we provide not only oral medicines and catheter therapy including Balloon-occluded Retrograde Transvenous Obliteration (B-RTO), Partial Splenic Embolization (PSE), etc., but also endoscopic therapy including Endoscopic Variceal Ligation (EVL), Endoscopic Injection Sclerotherapy (EIS), etc.

6. Multidisciplinary therapy for digestive system cancer in consideration of patients’ QOL

For digestive system cancers including stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, etc., special care team provides multidisciplinary therapy including local therapy, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, etc.
For early-stage tumors in digestive systems (stomach, esophagus, large intestine, etc.), we proactively perform Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) which is a less-invasive therapy. The number of ESD performed are rapidly increasing.
For liver cancer, depending on each patient’s condition (level of liver cancer progression, hepatic reserve, etc.), we treat it in our department using various methods including Radiofrequency Ablation (RFA), Transcatheter Arterial Chemo-Embolization (TACE), Hepatic Arterial Infusion Chemotherapy (HAIC), molecular-targeted therapy, etc., and surgical resection and radiation therapy are also performed in cooperation with our surgery and radiology departments. We choose the optimal therapy for every patient, resulting in we get much better patient outcome.
We always give our first priority to the patients’ Quality of Life (QOL), and decide on a course of treatments in consideration of the patient’s requests. For the terminal patients, we work together with our palliative care team to improve their QOL.

7. Endoscopic therapy as main treatments for esophageal and gastric varices.

For esophageal varices accompanying portal hypertension, we perform Endoscopic Variceal Ligation (EVL) and Endoscopic Injection Sclerotherapy (EIS). To treat gastric varices, we perform EIS and Balloon Occluded Retrograde Transvenous Obliteration (BRTO). Regarding treatments for esophagus achalasia, we started Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) on January 2021.