Gastroenterology

See a gastroenterologist if heartburn happens more than twice a week, keeps returning despite over-the-counter antacids, disturbs your sleep, or comes with difficulty swallowing, vomiting, weight loss, or black stools. These features need proper assessment and sometimes an endoscopy.

Both are done with sedation at Prime Hospital, Kondhwa, so most patients feel little or nothing during the test and rest for a short while afterward. Upper GI endoscopy takes a few minutes; colonoscopy needs a bowel-prep drink the day before. You will need someone to accompany you home.

It can be as simple as piles or a fissure, but it can also signal ulcers, inflammation, polyps, or bowel cancer, so it should never be ignored. A gastroenterologist will examine you and usually advise a colonoscopy to find the source, especially if you are over 40 or it is recurrent.

Early non-alcoholic fatty liver often improves with sustained weight loss, control of blood sugar and cholesterol, cutting alcohol, and regular exercise. Your specialist will check liver enzymes and a scan, rule out other causes, and set targets, then monitor with periodic tests.

Irritable bowel syndrome is diagnosed from the symptom pattern after excluding other conditions with a few tests. Management combines dietary changes such as a trial of a low-FODMAP approach, fibre and fluid adjustment, stress management, and targeted medication for pain, bloating, or bowel habit.