C-Arm X-Ray machine lies defunct in SCB ERCP unit

Surjit kumar Dhal,Cuttack, Feb 1: The Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (ERCP) service in the Gastroenterology Department of SCB Medical College and Hospital remains shut for nearly 15 days with the C-Arm X-Ray machine lying defunct.

Patients are forced to move to private set-ups for necessary investigation incurring exorbitant expenditure.

         ERCP is most commonly performed to diagnose conditions of the pancreas or bile ducts, and is also used to treat those conditions. It can be used before or after gallbladder surgery to assist in the performance of that operation. Bile duct stones can be diagnosed and removed with an ERCP.

Tumors, both cancerous and noncancerous, can be diagnosed and then treated with indwelling plastic tubes that are used to bypass a blockage of the bile duct. Complications from gallbladder surgery and jaundice can also sometimes be diagnosed and treated with ERCP.

         While an endoscope will be gently passed through patient’s mouth, down the esophagus, and into the stomach and duodenum, the doctors diagnosed and treat disease by studding image obtained from the C-Arm X-Ray machine during the ERCP.

         As the C-Arm X-Ray machine is lying defunct, the ERCP cannot be performed at SCBMCH’s Gastroenterology Department.

            Head of the Gastroenterology Department Prof. Chittta Ranjan Panda, however, said that C-Arm X-ray system functioning since 2012 has been hanged and effort is on to restore the same within two or three days.

          The needy patients have been advised to avail the service after restoration of the machine, he clarified.