First of all, I would like to emphasize that routine gastroscopy and colonoscopy are really minimally invasive with a very low risk even for elderly with pre-existing medical conditions provided those conditions are stable.
Besides being able to inspect the inner lining of the digestive tract directly, endoscopy allows your specialist to obtain tissue samples and remove small polyps at the same time. This not only increases the accuracy of the diagnosis but also allows treatment to be done at the same setting with minimal risk to you.
Other readily available procedures to define the digestive tract include barium studies and CT scan. These are radiological investigations with lower accuracy for small lesions when compare with endoscopy. The other newer test is video capsule endoscopy (VCE) where a wireless plastic capsule with a light source and capable of taking pictures is ingested. Like the radiology tests, VCE is purely diagnostic in nature and cannot collect tissue samples or remove any polyp found. If a problem is detected in the digestive system with radiology method or VCE, most patients will end up with a gastroscopy or colonoscopy for confirmation and treatment.
Dr Quan
