Why you may need an endoscopy ?

Why you may need an endoscopy ?

To screen for and prevent cancer. For example, doctors use a type of endoscopy called a colonoscopy to screen for colorectal cancer. During a colonoscopy, your doctor may remove growths called polyps. Without removal, polyps could develop into cancer.

To diagnose a disease or find out the cause of symptoms. The type of endoscopy your doctor will recommend depends on the part of the body under examination.

To give treatment. Doctors use endoscopes for certain treatments.

Treatments that may involve an endoscope include:

• Laparoscopic surgery, which is done through small incisions in the skin

• Laser therapy, which uses a powerful beam of light to destroy cancer cells

• Microwave ablation, which uses heat to destroy cancerous tissue

• Endoscopic mucosal resection or endoscopic submucosal dissection, which is surgery using an endoscope inserted into the gastrointestinal tract

• Photodynamic therapy, which destroys a tumor with a laser after injecting it with a light-sensitive substance