Vijayawada: Advanced treatment for rare gastrointestinal disease

Vijayawada: Per Oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) procedure is the advanced treatment available for the rare gastrointestinal disease, said Dr Bathini Rajesh, senior gastroenterologist at Ramesh Hospitals. He successfully treated 37 patients of Achalasia Cardia with the help of this procedure, which is based on endoscopy.

Dr Rajesh said, "Food goes into the stomach through esophagus. When Achalasia Cardia occurs, food remains in esophagus causing severe discomfort in throat, chest, upper abdomen with initial regurgitation of gastric contents leading to projectile vomiting at a severe stage of the disease."

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Dr Rajesh said that the main symptoms of Achalasia Cardia disease are burning sensation in chest, worsening of throat pain while swallowing food, vomiting of food after swallowing, and significant weight loss. It has been reported that Achalasia Cardia usually affects one in a million people, and the disease is caused by past viral infections, autoimmune disorders, and some genetic factors that, if left untreated, can lead to esophageal cancer. He said that so far 37 POEM procedures have been performed in Guntur and Vijayawada with near total success rate.

Ramesh Hospitals Group Managing Director Dr Pothineni Ramesh Babu lauded the efforts of Dr Bathini Rajesh for performing 37 successful POEM therapies. He informed that they have provided services like Endoscopy, Colonoscopy, ERCP, Endoscopic Ultrasound and Power Spiral Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy to people in the region. 'We are the first to perform POEM procedures in the State,' he added

Ramesh Hospitals MG Road branch unit head Dr Karupati Sudarshan, pulmonologist and allergy specialist Dr Tatineni Sandeep, general physician Dr Kakani Sindhura and were present in the press meet.