Hepatology and gastroenterology – maybe not clear concepts for everyone. Does a gastroenterologist do the same thing as a hepatologist? What kind of problem can you turn to the individual specialists for? The most authentic answers from dr. It was given by Alíz Németh, hepatologist and gastroenterologist at the Gastroenterology Center.
What do gastroenterologists and hepatologists do?
Gastroenterology basically deals with the digestive system and its diseases, but it also has knowledge about the functioning of the liver. In the latter, however, a separate field of expertise, hepatology, can delve deeper, because a hepatologist is actually a “liver doctor”. The word hepato means liver, but a hepatologist is not only aware of the liver, but of all the organs of the biliary tract, that is, in addition to liver diseases, it can also diagnose and treat bile problems.
Since the pancreas also plays a role in this organ system, it can be examined by both a hepatologist and a gastroenterologist (typically the latter), because the disease of one organ affects the others as well. And some hepatologists specialize specifically in end-stage liver diseases and liver transplantation.
– We can say that every hepatologist is also a gastroenterologist, but the reverse is not necessarily true. In other words, after the gastroenterology examination, you can specialize in hepatology – Dr. Németh summarizes the information.
So what does a hepatologist do?
Basically, people come to the hepatologist in connection with liver problems. Often and for a long time, these have no characteristic symptoms, it is only perhaps in connection with a laboratory test performed for a different purpose that liver function values differ from normal. Sometimes the gastroenterologist consulted for general symptoms, such as abdominal pain and indigestion, suggests that it is worth consulting a hepatologist. The latter tries to discover or rule out diseases such as hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), fatty liver (which can develop on the basis of alcoholism, but also independently), liver cirrhosis, acute or chronic liver failure and liver cancer. Rarer pathologies also occur in hepatology practice, such as Wilson’s disease or autoimmune liver diseases.
The hepatologist also deals with diseases of the biliary tract, including bile duct stenosis, gallstones, biliary stasis, inflammation of the gallbladder and tumors that develop here.
With these symptoms, it is worth consulting a gastroenterologist or a hepatologist
You should visit a gastroenterologist if you have the following symptoms: abdominal pain in any part of the abdomen, bloating, heartburn, reflux, unreasonable weight loss, loss of appetite, changes in bowel habits (constipation/diarrhea, bloody stools), difficulty swallowing, any digestive problems. At the same time, if you experience sudden, very strong abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, you must not delay, you must call an ambulance, primarily due to the urgent treatment of pancreatitis.
– When someone notices symptoms of real liver disease, it usually indicates that the condition is somewhat more advanced than the initial level. In such cases, the hepatologist is responsible. Hepatitis, i.e. inflammation of the liver, can be suspected if malaise, exhaustion, joint and muscle pain, nausea, headache, pain under the right rib cage and skin rashes appear. These complaints can occur in both the acute and chronic forms, although dark urine and light stools are more characteristic of chronic hepatitis and jaundice only appears in the later stages. The direct cause of the discoloration of the skin and the whites of the eyes is that the liver cannot efficiently break down the bilirubin produced during the breakdown of red blood cells due to a malfunction of the liver. – explains dr. Alíz Némethhepatologist and gastroenterologist at the Center for Gastroenterology.
– At the same time, if a person is currently symptom-free but lives with some risk factor, for example, is an alcoholic or is struggling with obesity, or has a higher risk of liver disease due to some other disease, it is worth taking part in a hepatological examination as a screening, which, in addition to laboratory tests and physical examination, can be an important part of the painless also a liver structural examination.
Source: Center for Gastroenterology
Source: www.patikamagazin.hu
