St. Charles' new Gastroenterology practice is growing, both in size and scope - pun intended.

August saw the arrival of a new provider, Dr. Courtney Walker, who brings to the health system expertise in advanced therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound (TEUS), a service that both expands the array of and reduces the invasiveness of treatments available to local patients.

Walker is the first provider in Central Oregon to offer TEUS, which means local residents who could benefit from the procedure now have the option to get the care they need without driving to Portland or beyond.

"For patients, it should be much nicer to be able to stay here and get this procedure rather than having to cross over the mountains in the winter, for example," she said. "Also, our hope is that referring providers will be able to get their patients in quicker rather than having to coordinate through Portland, especially when time is of the essence."

Simply put, TEUS is a procedure that uses an ultrasound mounted on an endoscope to examine and treat the gastrointestinal tract and nearby organs. Similar to an upper endoscopy, providers can go down into the intestinal tract, press the ultrasound up against the lining of the stomach or the small intestine and look through to the other side for abnormalities.

The big benefit for patients is that TEUS is minimally invasive compared to other methods of examining areas deep within the abdominal cavity, including surgery or interventional radiology, Walker said.

"When you have to go through all these organs and intestines with a giant needle to try to reach something that's maybe a centimeter or two in size, it's a challenge," she said. "With TEUS, we're already inside and the lymph node is just right next door, so we can easily sample tissue. It's painless, for the most part. We get the biopsy and (the patient) is home an hour later."

There are also a number of therapeutic possibilities with TEUS. During the procedure, providers can administer injections to treat chronic pancreatitis or malignant pain related to pancreatic cancer; collect liver biopsies to learn more about abnormal liver function; determine the stage and spread of diseases like esophageal and rectal cancer and more.

Walker joins St. Charles' new team of Gastroenterology providers, who see patients in Bend and Redmond for a variety of digestive and biliary organ conditions, including GERD, Barrett's esophagus, swallowing issues, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, celiac disease and more.

The addition of TEUS to the department's list of specialized services is a win-win for both St. Charles and the community, Walker said.

"There are quite a few people out there who are going to benefit from this. I'm doing maybe three to five per week and that's just a couple months in," she said. "Our hope is that as more people know it's available here, it will continue to grow and we'll be able to help a lot of people across Central Oregon."

Learn more about St. Charles Gastroenterology on our website.

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