Prof. Long Dao Van – limiting surgical intervention is always a top priority

How to minimize the number of surgical intervention cases in the digestive tract is a problem that Professor Dao Van Long, PhD concerned about. 

Behind the happiness of patients

Sharing with Hoang Long Clinic, Mr. D.H.H (70 years old, Hanoi) is really happy because his health is gradually improving, his carcinoid tumor placed at the end of the ileum has been successfully removed by doctors through colonoscopy. This tumor is the cause of digestive disorders, loss of appetite, fatigue lasting for more than a year. Mr. H has suffered from this illness which making he and his family very worried.

Before examinating in Hoang Long Clinic, Mr. H. had visited many hospital and was found to have a tumor over 1 cm in diameter located the ileum. Biopsy results showed that this was a carcinoid tumor – a neuroendocrine tumor with a very high cancerous potential.

After a thorough investigation, the endoscopic doctors of these hospital predicted that the tumor could not be removed by using endoscopy, so doctors advised the patient to perform a surgery in order to remove a segment of intestine which contain this tumor.

Before performing surgery, Mr. H. and his family had researched a number of other medical facilities. After consultation, Mr. H. decided to choose Hoang Long Clinic and booked an appointment with Professor Dao Van Long, PhD - Founder of the Clinic for specific advice. Here, Mr. H. had endoscopic intervention instead of having surgery to remove Carcinoid tumor.

Photo: Prof. Dr. Dao Van Long - Founder of Hoang Long Clinic

The concerns of the endoscopist

When the patient visited Hoang Long Clinic, through endoscopic examination, Professor Dao Van Long, PhD and other endoscopic doctors noticed that at the end of the ileum, close to the edge of the valve which connecting the small intestine and large intestine, there was a ivory, smooth surface and upper 1cm diameter tumor. Thus, the diagnosis and conclusion of doctors at other hospitals are completely correct. The tumor is close to the valve edge, so it is difficult to make a loop for resection – especially when using colonoscope.

After consultation, the doctors decided to REMOVE THE TUMOR THROUGH ENDOSCOPY despite many unfavorable factors such as: the location of the tumor is close to the edge of the valve, so it is difficult to fix it and the operating space is quite limited. During the implementation process, Professor Dao Van Long, PhD and his colleagues used a gastroscope with smaller diameter to insert a into the small intestine instead of colonoscope. Thanks to this changing, the procedure becomes easier.

Thus, with their high expertise combined with modern endoscopic techniques, it took less than 30 minutes for Hoang Long Clinic doctors to successfully remove this carcinoid tumor.

This helped the patient to partly reduce the financial burden, the case has turned from SERVEVE TO MILD, and the patient was discharged quickly within the same day. So far, his health condition has recovered relatively well.

According to Professor Dao Van Long, PhD “There are about 20 cases detected in Hoang Long Clinic as carcinoid tumor belonging to the gastrointestinal tract including duodenum, rectum and colon. But this is the FIRST time, we detected carcinoid tumor in the small intestine and successfully removed it endoscopically, avoiding a complicated surgery and after resection, all the cases we followed progress well”.

Photo: Doctors in Hoang Long Hospital is performing a gastroscopy

High-technology endoscopy– a solution to help limit surgical intervention

Every day, Professor Dao Van Long, PhD examinate for about hundreds of patients with digestive diseases, who needed to be diagnosed and treated by endoscopy. Therefore, how can these cases be treated with the least invasive intervention? How far can endoscopic techniques replace surgery in some cases? How can the patient be discharged as soon as possible, with good health condition also minimize the cost of treatment? That is always a concern of Professor Dao Van Long, PhD. 

With more than 40 years of experience in the field of digestive, liver and biliary tract diseases, Professor Dao Van Long, PhD is one of the leading experts, specializing in examination and treatment by using endoscopy such as removing foreign object, scanning and burning metaplasia, treating early stage cancer…. From first days of accessing the advanced endoscopic techniques, he was always impressed by the effectiveness of these techniques and then he has continuously kept learning and improving his skills as well as appling advanced endoscopic techniques in his clinic where he participated in medical examination and treatment.

Therefore, the investment in modern endoscopic equipment is always focused by Professor Dao Van Long, PhD because as a leading expert, more than anyone else, he understands that using high technology endoscopy contributes greatly to treating diseases, and helps to reduce a lot of cases requiring surgery while other options are equally optimal.

Hoang Long Clinic - where the Professor puts a lot of enthusiasm for examination and treatment, especially digestive diseases - is using magnifying endoscopy called Fujifilm 7000 series. This technique can magnify endoscopic pictures up to 390 times, equivalent to the magnification of a microscope, therefore fully evaluate the severity of the lesion. As a result, it has improved the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment gastrointestinal diseases.