Pioneering Uses of Lumen-Apposing Metal Stents (LAMS)
For three decades, the Endoscopy Center in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital has been pioneering advanced endoscopic techniques.
Category: Gastroenterology & GI Surgery
Specialty: Gastroenterology & GI Surgery
Ingestible Self-Orienting Device Offers Hope for Oral Insulin Delivery
Can insulin be given to patients without injection through the skin? This is the problem that Brigham and Women’s gastroenterologist, C. Giovanni Traverso, MD, PhD, is trying to solve. Daily injections require training and can be painful for patients living with diabetes. As a result, physicians may hesitate to prescribe insulin for years—despite its immense therapeutic value—selecting alternatives that may not work as well but which can be taken orally instead.
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State-of-the-Art Surgical Suite a Catalyst for Novel Abdominal Procedures
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is developing new ways to resect or biopsy intraabdominal tumors by incorporating cutting-edge imaging technology within the operating room. Specifically, the Brigham’s state-of-the-art Advanced Multimodality Image Guided Operating (AMIGO) suite—a 5,700-square-foot operating room that integrates an array of advanced imaging technologies—allows physicians to more easily identify and more accurately biopsy or resect lesions in the mesentery of the bowel and retroperitoneum.
Pushing the Boundaries of Robotic-Assisted Colorectal Surgery
In 2017, nearly 700,000 robotic-assisted procedures were performed in the United States. Robotic surgery is fast becoming the preferred method for procedures in gynecological, thoracic, urologic, colon and rectal surgery. Today, a wide range of colorectal problems can be treated with robotic surgery.
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A Biopsychosocial Treatment Model for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Absent of a cure for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), physicians at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have pioneered a broader approach to improving the health of patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s by focusing on lifestyle, health education and psychosocial aspects of disease.
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Leading the Country in the Care of Patients with Hereditary GI Cancers
Over the past two decades, the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) has become a national leader in the care of patients with hereditary gastrointestinal cancers, from Lynch syndrome to polyposis syndromes.
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Expanding the Frontiers of Care for Pancreatic Diseases
For 26 years, the Center for Pancreatic Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital has been at the forefront of providing care for patients with pancreatic diseases. The Center’s three medical pancreatologists, who include Peter A. Banks, MD, Julia Y. McNabb-Baltar, MD, MPH, and David X. Jin, MD, MPH, work collaboratively with interventional radiologists, gastrointestinal surgeons and therapeutic endoscopists to provide the latest diagnostic and treatment options for acute and chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cysts, hormone-producing tumors and cancer.
New Enhanced Recovery Pathway After HIPEC Improves Outcomes
A treatment option that has shown to improve clinical outcomes and prognosis in patients with peritoneal metastasis is cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). While HIPEC can improve disease-free survival in many patients, it’s a major operation.
Surgery in a Pill: Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
Over the last decade, bariatric surgeons have made strides in performing weight-loss surgery that not only reverses obesity but can also reverse type 2 diabetes in patients with both conditions.
Slow-Release Pill Developed to Deliver Multiple Drugs at Once
Medication non-adherence remains a major challenge across nearly all diseases. To address complex medication regimens and combination therapies, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have developed a “mini pill box” that can stay in the stomach for one week and provide a long-lasting dose of multiple medications.
In a study published online in Nature Communications in January, researchers from BWH, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and their collaborators describe success in delivering three anti-retrovirals for HIV in a pig model.