Clinical Medicine Insights: Gastroenterology

Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract

The entire field of gastroenterology is primed to take an enormous step forward, with scientific and endoscopic advances which will be to this decade what the treatments of peptic ulcer disease and viral hepatitis conditions were for the 80’s and 90’s. So also in the area of esophagology there are numerous emerging techniques and scientific advances in our understanding of the motor and sensory function of the esophagus. These contribute to our better understanding of common conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) including erosive esophagitis (EE), normal endoscopy reflux disease (NERD), Barrett’s epithelium (BE), and esophageal adenocarcinoma (ECA), as well as the less common esophageal motility disorders, oro-pharyngeal dysphagia and eosinophilic esophagitis.