Invasive Surgery Procedure for Chronic Heartburn [VIDEO]

For most people, heartburn is a treatable symptom. Frequent heartburn may indicate acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD. When treatment doesn't work and heartburn is severe despite lifestyle changes, surgery may be an option. It may also be an option if GERD causes other medical problems. Minimally invasive procedures using endoscopy are also available to treat acid reflux.

For most people, heartburn is a treatable symptom. Frequent heartburn may indicate acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD. When treatment doesn't work and heartburn is severe despite lifestyle changes, surgery may be an option. It may also be an option if GERD causes other medical problems. Minimally invasive procedures using endoscopy are also available to treat acid reflux.

Most people, if not everyone, considering surgery for GERD will first undergo endoscopy. Many will also have tests to check the muscle function of the esophagus. These tests can include esophageal manometry and esophageal motility studies.

The EsophyX TIF procedure reduces hiatal hernia and creates a valve between the stomach and esophagus restoring the natural, physiological anatomy to prevent gastroesophageal reflux. Because the procedure is incisionless, there is reduced pain, reduced recovery and no visible scar. The EsophyX TIF procedure represents the next step in the revolution of surgery. Del Sol brings this technology so that those who have suffered with reflux in the past, can now better enjoy life. 

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Crohn’s Disease Is Associated with Restless Legs Syndrome

Researchers investigating a link between restless legs syndrome (RLS) and Crohn’s disease (CD) uncovered results that demonstrate RLS occurs frequently in people with CD and appears to be a possible extraintestinal manifestation of CD. This research appeared in the February 2010 issue of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

CD is an ongoing disorder that causes inflammation of the digestive tract, also referred to as the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. CD can affect any area of the GI tract, from the mouth to the anus, but it most commonly affects the lower part of the small intestine, called the ileum.

CD has a variety of possible extraintestinal manifestations: arthritis, skin problems, kidney stones, gallstones, and liver diseases. This study is the first to show central nervous system (CNS) manifestations of CD.

A total of 272 patients with CD participated in the study, and researchers found a 43 percent incidence rate and 30 percent prevalence rate of RLS in patients with CD, compared with a 9 percent prevalence rate in the control group. RLS symptoms occurred during or after the onset of CD symptoms in the majority of patients, suggesting a link between CD and RLS.

For more information and to obtain copies, visit www.digestive.niddk.nih.gov.

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Chronic hepatitis B transmission

Chronic hepatitis B virus transmission can be done by different ways:

A. Horizontal

-Parenteral or percutaneous ( blood, blood derivates, contact with infected instruments, including tattoos).
-Physical contact (non-sexual) : intrafamilial, children collectivities;
-Sexual contact.

B. Vertical
-Perinatal (from an infected mother to the child).

In areas with high endemicity, the transmission is mainly vertical, while in those with medium and low endemicity the main transmission is mostly horizontal. The serological selection of blood taken for transfusion has led to the decreasing in incidence of HBsAg and of residual risk of transmission of HVB.

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Chronic hepatitis B Epidemiology

Chronic hepatitis B represents a public problem caused by the relatively high carriage.

Epidemiology

At as global level, 2 billions of people in the world have been infected with hepatitis B virus, only in Europe the annual apparition of new cases being more than one million. Nowadays it is estimated that in the whole world there are over 350 millions of chronic carriers HBV, with a tendency to increase to 400 millions. Most chronic carriers are in Asia and Africa, places with high prevalence (over 8 - 10 % ). Our country is considered to have a medium endemicity. There are also zones with a low prevalence (under 2 % ) in Australia, USA and Western Europe.




The natural sources of HBV infection are the infected people, the virus being located in the blood, saliva and other secretions (seminal, vaginal, human milk). The main source of infection is represented by infected blood, so the administration of blood (transfusion) or its derivates (platelets mass, cryoprecipitate, antihemophilic factors etc. ) may produce the infection. This can be also transmitted sexually (by sperm), by different secretions or perinatal.
The receptiveness is general except for those that have already surpassed the disease or the vaccinated.

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The etiology of chronic hepatitis

Certainly, the most frequent etiology of chronic hepatitis is the viral one.

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Chronic hepatitis diagnosis

Chronic hepatitis diagnosis is clinic, biological, but mostly histological. Chronic hepatitis can often be asymptomatic, or the clinical features are completely nonspecific, and therefore they are sometimes discovered by routine bilogical investigations.
Almost a half of patients suffering from acute hepatitis are discovered by periodical analyses or by a routine ultrasonography, which will show splenomegaly. When presuming the existence of chronic hepatitis, one should start with an exact etiological history, a correct clinical examination, a biological evaluation of the hepatic disease (the four biological syndromes: cytolytic, hepatoprive, inflammatory and billiar), an abdominal ultrasonography to evaluate the spleen dimension and the possible signs of portal hypertension.

The staging of chronic hepatitis is made compulsory by a hepatic biopsy (HBP). The biopsy will allow the correct histological framing, and also a quite exact prognosis, and sometimes will bring important etiological data, and it will allow in the same time a therapeutical decision. Non invasive markers which measures fibrosis were recently introduced. They use biological tests or hepatic elastography.

The histological staging of chronic hepatitis requires a compulsory hepatic puncture. This is a technique with low invasivity and a minimal risk. Lately HPB has been done by ultrasonographic control. THe bioptic fragment, after fixing and coloration with HE or special colorations, will be interpretated by an experimented pathologist. Whis will describe the lesions, a histological classification in chronic persistent hepatitis, in chronic active hepatitis, and the chronic lobular hepatitis, and then will use a quantifying score of lesions. At this moment, there are more histological framing scores.

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Chronic hepatitis definition

Chronic hepatitis represents necro - inflammatory and fibrotic hepatic processes with an evolution of at least 6 months.

Hepatitis may occur with limited or no symptoms, but often leads to jaundice, anorexia (poor appetite) and malaise. Hepatitis is acute when it lasts less than six months and chronic when it persists longer. A group of viruses known as the hepatitis viruses cause most cases of hepatitis worldwide, but it can also be due to toxins (notably alcohol, certain medications, some industrial organic solvents and plants), other infections and autoimmune diseases.

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Chronic pancreatitis diagnosis and treatment

Definition of chronic pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the pancreas, with progressive evolution to pancreatic destruction(exocrine and endocrine), evolving towards pancreatic failure.

Clinical features

• abdominal pain, with epigastric or periombilical location, sometimes in the entire upper abdominal region, often appearing after abundant meals.
• steathorrhea (voluminous, pasty, rancing- smelling)
• a chronic alcohol abuse

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