About 8,500 endoscopies were carried out at Mater Dei Hospital’s Endoscopy Unit last year, Health Minister Joseph Cassar said to mark the 25th anniversary since the procedure started being done in Malta.

The figure represents a substantial rise in the number of such procedures held at St Luke’s Hospital in 1987, which stood at 3,050. The increase, Dr Cassar said, was possible thanks to the opening of another three endoscopy theatres and increasing the number of consultants in this sector from five to 19.

Endoscopies help doctors by enabling them to view organs from the inside. Along the years, doctors were also able to carry out other interventions through endoscopies, such as biopsies, oesophageal dilatation and colonic stenting.

Endoscopies were, nowadays, being carried out in the large and small intestine, the stomach and the lungs, Dr Cassar said.

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