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Endoscopy Unit Hailed by Hospital

SOMEES POINT - Shore Memorial Hospital has recently added an en doscopy unit to its patienl services, the first unit of its kind in area community hospitals. According to Barry Kaufman, M.D., a gastroenterologist who spearheaded the opening of the unit here, endoscopic departments are generally found in major metropolitan hospitals and are only recently becoming prevalent in community hospitals. SAFETY IS is a large reason why many doctors and patients prefer endoscopic procedures be performed in a hospital where emergency medical needs can be met. Since bowel, esophagus and other gastrointestinal structures ape being probed the patidht is sedated while the (endoscope, a tublar fiberoptic instrument used to view the inside of these organs, is inserted. Although the danger of a complication is minimal, overall safety and the need for an observed recovery are reasons why physicians, like Kaufman, prefer their patients to have the procedure performed in a hospital.

"THE PATIENT is in an environment that can handle complications," Kaufman explained adding that in the past out-patients usually had to be admitted for these procedures. However, with the outpatient service here hospital costs are kept down while providing the patient with the security of a professional setting. The endoscope is a com- , plex and sensitive instrument, which among its many uses, can take tissue samples of various parts of the gastrointestinal tract as well as remove polyps and some other growths, thereby eliminating the need for invasive surgery, explained Dr. Bekal Venkatachalam, director of the hospital's division of gastroenterology. ENDOSCOPY also allows for the early detection of cancer. which can increase the cure rate to 100 percent, he added. "It's a more definitive . test," Venkatachalam said. Since the unit opened Sept. 4 with one procedure room and one nurse in attendance, over 200 patients have been treated, prompting the expansion of the unit to four ' procedure rooms, a recovery room, patient and physician lounges and a tripling of the staff. Indeed, explained Ted Wiegand, hospital administrator, the endoscopy unit is most likely the fastest growing department in the hospital. Plans are to add brochoscopy and thoracic applications to the

AN INSIDE LOOK — Lisa Ritter, R.N., assists Dr. Bekal Venkatachalam, director of Shore Memorial Hospital division of gastroenterology, in an endoscopic procedure conducted in hospital's new endoscopy unit, first of its kind in area.

more than half a dozen endoscopic procedures specialists are now performing at Shore Memorial. "WE FEEL we are addressing a demonstrated need for our patients," Wiegand explained, "The unit was presented to us, we invested in it and found that it was needed in this area. We're the only ones in

i this part of South Jersey that offer it." Hospital officials are in t agreement with physi5 cians' projections for the 1 growth of the unit which, is housed on the fifth floor of the Whitby Wing. Drs. > Kaufmanand t Venkatachalam are cer- ; tain of the need as well as f the growth potential. Aside from expanding the various endoscopy functions there is hope of ; enhancing the equipment : to include video tape and * computerization of records to keep track of patients, they said. In addition Kaufman noted there is the application of laser technology in treating various cancers or growths discovered by endoscopy. KAUFMAN believes that documentation of growths, ulcers or any other internal disorder with televised photography will allow for more accurate measurement of the success of the treatment. "A picture doesn't lie," he said, adding that these documents can travel with patients wherever they may go. Although photography and computerization are in the offing, currently the endoscopy unit offers seven different procedures including colonoscopy, which is the most time-consuming procedure, lasting up to an hour and allowing for the viewing of the entire lower intestine. ALSO, FLEXIBLE sigmoidoscopy, which examines the area nearest the rectum; esophagogas-

troduodenoscopy that examines the esophagus, stomach and upper intestine; esophageal dilatation, which allows for the esophagus to be dilated. And endoscopic retrograde cholecholangioancreatotraphy, (ERCP) which probes the bile ducts and pancreas; manometry, which

measures esophageal pressures, and the H2 breath analyzer, which measures hydrogen production by bowel bacteria. "It's something that keeps costs down because it's done on an out-patient basis," said Wiegand of the unit.

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