Treatments

People with GI conditions often decline invitations because things can be so uncertain — will there be a bathroom nearby? Will the food aggravate my stomach? Will I be able to relax enough to enjoy myself? We work daily with patients who have the same concerns, helping them find the most effective remedy when their condition negatively impacts their everyday lives. 

Our goal is to ease the pain digestive health conditions cause you and to allow you to rejoin your favorite people and enjoy life again.

Overview of Treatments 

Once we diagnose the trouble in your digestive system, we will discuss treatment options with you and your primary care provider. The Neurogastroenterology & Motility Center offers a full range of treatment options, including:

• Medications to reduce symptoms or help move food through the digestive tract easier.
• Lifestyle changes to decrease pressure in certain sections of the digestive tract or make dietary adjustments to avoid foods that aggravate your condition.

Surgical interventions

• Endoscopic stricture dilation, using an endoscopic technique to widen sections of the esophagus that have become restricted.
• Gastric Electrical Stimulation (Enterra) is a pacemaker-like device implanted beneath the skin on the abdomen and delivering mild electrical pulses to reduce nausea and vomiting.
• Gastric per-oral endoscopic myotomy (G-POEM) is for people with persistent gastroparesis, cutting muscles near the valve that controls food flow from the stomach to the small intestine. This relaxes the valve so food can more easily empty.
• Pneumatyic dilation to address tight muscles that prevent food flow as a result of achalasia, using an air-filled balloon that disrupts the muscles so they stretch.
• Transoral Incisionless Fundoplication (TIF), an advanced endoscopy procedure, reconstructs the gastroesophageal valve to relieve symptoms of acid reflux.

Emerging therapies

• Biofeedback therapy to help you learn to control body functions with such disorders as incontinence, constipation and pelvic floor spasms.
• Pelvic floor rehabilitation, specialized physical therapy involving exercises that help with constipation, fecal incontinence and other digestive conditions.