Upper endoscopy helps your doctor evaluate various symptoms that include persistent upper abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or difficulty swallowing. It's an excellent test for finding and treating the cause of bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal tract. It's also more accurate than X-rays or barium tests for detecting inflammation, ulcers and tumors of the esophagus, stomach and duodenum.
Your specialist might use upper endoscopy to obtain a biopsy (small tissue samples). A biopsy is done for a number of reasons but most commonly to test for helicobacter pylori, which is a bacterium that is a common cause of duodenal and gastric ulcers. Occasionally a biopsy is done to distinguish between benign and malignant (cancerous) tissues. Your doctor might also use upper endoscopy to perform a cytology test, where he or she will introduce a small brush to collect cells for analysis.Upper endoscopy is also used to treat conditions of the upper gastrointestinal tract. Your doctor can pass instruments through the endoscope to directly treat many abnormalities with little or no discomfort. For example, your doctor might stretch a narrowed area, remove polyps (usually benign growths) or stop bleeding.
