Department of Gastroenterology

Head of Office: Masaya Tamano MD, PhD

Message from the Head of Office

     Dokkyo Medical University Saitama Medical Center is a facility that has played a major role as a regional core hospital in Japan. Due to its location and large numbers of patients, doctors can gain clinical experience through a wide variety of cases, including gastrointestinal disease, hepatic disease, and biliary and pancreatic disease. Our department operates as a guidance facility for many academic societies, so it also provides opportunities to obtain specialist qualifications. In addition, it is possible to obtain a PhD under the supervision of an excellent instructor in both basic and clinical research.
      In terms of clinical training, the goal for clinicians is to develop requisite dialogue skills and leadership while that for trainees is to learn new methods for “problem research” and “problem solving”.  For that purpose, it is important not only to teach skills and knowledge unilaterally, but also to acquire a “learning process” that is indispensable as a clinician. The goal of education is to train doctors to provide advanced and high-quality medical care to the highest medical ethical standards, as well as medical personnel to contribute to medical care and progress.

Activities

  1. The average number of outpatients in the Department of Gastroenterology is about 140 per day, and five doctors are available from Monday to Saturday. The medical treatment available includes endoscopic treatment and chemotherapy, as well as examinations mainly for gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary-pancreatic diseases.
     
  2. In addition, as a specialized outpatient department, we provide individualized medical care for cancer chemotherapy and chronic liver disease. In particular, for chronic liver disease, we hold classes on liver disease on a regular basis. We also provide and encourage guidance to patients with the cooperation of pharmacists and nutritionists. As a general rule, referral patients are returned to the referral facility, accompanied by prompt progress reports, when the examination or treatment is complete.
     
  3. Education

School of Medicine:

3rd year Gastroenterology
4th year Gastroenterology
5th～6th year Clinical Clerkship
Gastroenterology


School of Nursing:

1st year Anatomical Physiology III
2nd year Pathophysiology III

Research Field

  • Observational study of changes in muscle mass evaluated by abdominal computed tomography (CT) in patients with liver cirrhosis (MILE Study)
  • Construction of a nutritional guidance system using artificial intelligence (AI) for patients with liver cirrhosis
  • Clinical study of factors influencing liver elastography measurements during acute liver injury
  • Measurement of liver hardness in primary biliary cholangitis by shear wave elastography
  • Usefulness of pemafibrate in patients with primary biliary cholangitis with dyslipidemia
  • Nutritional guidance using AI for non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases
  • Examination of CagA protein detection in patients with Helicobacter pylori-negative gastric cancer treated by endoscopy
  •  Investigation into the association between the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and relapse of ulcerative colitis

Academic Society Activities

Japanese Society of Internal Medicine/Japanese Society of Gastroenterology
Japan Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society/Japanese Society of Hepatology
Japanese Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine/Japan Gastroenterological Association

Faculty

Head/Professor and Chairman: Masaya Tamano, MD, PhD
Professor: Yasumi Katayama, MD, PhD
Lecturer: Hitoshi Kino, MD, PhD
Lecturer: Tomoyuki Kitagawa, MD, PhD
Lecturer: Toshikuni Suda, MD, PhD

In addition to the above, the Department of Gastroenterology has 27 Assistant Professors.


Characteristics of the section

We provide focused medical care for the following items.

  • Diagnosis of the presence of H. pylori and eradication treatment
  • Diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease
  • Endoscopic treatment of esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer
  • Endoscopic hemostasis of gastrointestinal bleeding, angiographic hemostasis
  • Treatment for esophageal and gastric varices (ligation, sclerotherapy)
  • Treatment for gastrointestinal stenosis (balloon dilatation, stent placement)
  • Diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic liver failure (percutaneous liver biopsy, interferon therapy, oral antiviral therapy)
  • Treatment for liver cirrhosis (pharmacotherapy, nutritional treatment)
  • Drainage for obstructive jaundice (percutaneous, transendoscopic)
  • Common bile duct stone removal
  • Diagnosis and treatment of biliary strictures
  • Diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases
  • Cancer chemotherapy