Indications for gastro-intestinal endoscopy in the intensive care unit, excluding the management of digestive bleeding.

Abstract

There are many indications for digestive endoscopy in intensive care units, apart from digestive bleeding. The endoscopic interventional problem mainly concerns the bilio-pancreatic: drainage of angiocholitis and collections after acute pancreatitis, or after liver transplantation. The development of echo-endoscopy-guided extra-anatomical drainage and luminal apposition prostheses makes it possible to do without more invasive radiological or surgical techniques and, if technically and clinically successful, constitutes a real service to the patient. More common situations such as the placement of a feeding tube, the evaluation of the endoscopic severity of a mesenteric ischemia, the management of a colonic volvulus or a complicated Olgivia syndrome are also encountered.