therapeutic endoscopy

When a sharp pain in his abdomen landed Craig Blackman in a local emergency department, he asked for answers. Test after test, doctors could not determine the root cause of his pain. Suggestions of stones in his bile duct, a tumor in the pancreas and pancreatitis, were all investigated. Finally, he underwent an ERCP, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, a typical diagnostic test for location of stones, but none were detected. Mr. Blackman, of Medford saw Dr. Adam Elfant, Director of Therapeutic Endoscopy at the Cooper Digestive Health Institute for a procedure called SpyGlass™. Cooper is the only center in the region utilizing a new state-of-the-art direct visualization system known as SpyGlass ™. SpyGlass™ uses a precise fiber-optic camera, not much bigger than a pencil point, that is inserted through a catheter (or tube) into the upper digestive tract. Threaded through the stomach and into the bile ducts, the physician can “steer” the camera in four directions allowing them to pinpoint the exact spot they want to examine.