New procedure detects cancer, other ailments New procedure detects cancer, other ailments (March 04, 2005)

Camino Medical Group one of few places to offer service

By Julie O'Shea

The Camino Medical Group recently began using a rare, minimally intrusive procedure for tracking and assessing gastrointestinal diseases, such as cancer, gallstone problems and pancreatitis.

The procedure, known as an endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), is used at only a few medical centers around the country, including the Mayo Clinic, Stanford, UCSF and now Camino Medical Group, which serves patients in Mountain View, Los Altos and Sunnyvale.

With the use of a long black tube that has a small camera at its tip, the EUS procedure allows doctors to take a look inside patients' stomachs, rectums, lungs and chest cavities without having to operate to see what the problem might be. The camera, inserted into the patient's upper or lower digestive tract can create high-quality images that can help pinpoint the early stages of diseases.

"It's a very exciting new procedure," said Dr. Sanjay Ramrakhiani, a member of Camino's gastroenterology department and one of few doctors in the U.S. trained to perform the EUS procedure. "It helps with making an early diagnosis of cancer."

Ramrakhiani went through an extensive training process that included the successful completion of at least 300 EUS procedures before he was certified. He now performs between four and six EUSs per week. The medical group started using the procedure a few months ago. The technology itself, however, is about a decade old.

Before it was introduced in the U.S., doctors often had to operate on patients to find out what was wrong inside. Not only is EUS less invasive -- patients are typically in and out of the hospital within the afternoon -- but the procedure can also track the early stages of cancer. In addition, the EUS tube allows doctors to inject medicine into a patient's abdomen to alleviate pain and suffering.

Ellen McHenry, a Sunnyvale resident, recently underwent the procedure, which helped detect a previously unseen problem with her gallbladder.

At first, doctors thought McHenry's symptoms indicated gallstones, but a routine check-up found nothing amiss. McHenry was sent home, only to come back a few weeks later with the same problem.

It wasn't until she had a EUS that doctors discovered remnants of a gravel-like substance that would build up and then recede before doctors could figure out what was wrong. The remnants detected by the EUS procedure gave McHenry some "peace of mind."

"They (doctors) weren't going to do anything about it until something showed up," McHenry said, but "the traditional methods of detecting (the problem) weren't working."

The EUS procedure eventually led to the removal of McHenry's gallbladder, which, she believes, wouldn't have happened had it not been for that high-quality camera pinpointing the problem to her doctors.

"My gallbladder was looking fine, but it wasn't behaving fine," McHenry said, noting that even her surgeon commented on how healthy the organ looked.

"I'm very pleased with the whole thing," she added.

For more information on the EUS procedure, visit www.caminomedical.com.
E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.