The Gastroenterology unit is part of Medicine department at King Khalid University Hospital. The unit have 8 full-time Academic staff physicians; all are board certified in Internal Medicine and gastroenterology, 6 registrars and fellows. Approximately, physicians in the GI unit care for more than 160 patients on an outpatient basis/week, admit 15-20 patients to our hospital services per week and perform around 4000 procedures yearly with the help of 9 well trained endoscopy nurses and 2 radiology technicians. The Gastroenterology (Unit) headed by a Division head under the influence of the Department of medicine. The major mandate of the Divisions is to bring together unit members within their respective discipline to create cohesive and integrated clinical, research and educational program.

• Provide optimal in and out-patient care
• Educating medical students and training of medical and paramedical staff.
• Provide high quality and relevant gastroenterology and hepatology researc

Patient Care:

• IN-PATIENT CARE: The Gastroenterology unit will provide high quality care to the admitted patients in medical and non-medical wards.The GI unit will provide its services through:

• EMERGENCY ROOMS CONSULTATIONS: Will be provided to patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by the on- call teams in Gastroenterology, and Hepatology which will be covered by fellow/registrar and consultant.

• CARE FOR OUT-PATIENTS:The outpatient clinic is run by a consultant, assistant or fellow. In the Absence of the Consultant, the assistant or fellow will run the clinic under supervision of another Consultant. GI unit provides care to out-patients from Saturday to Tuesday (8 am to 5 pm) through the following clinics.
   
  • Interferon clinic: Saturday AM
  • Hepatology clinic: Tuesday AM (2clinics)
  • Gastroenterology clinics: Saturday AM, Sunday AM
  • IBD clinic: Saturday PM (2 clinics)
• General day care Unit: Will be provided to patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by the on- call teams in Gastroenterology, and Hepatology which will be covered by fellow/registrar and consultant.
  • Admitting patients who need only 2-3 hours of IV medications (eg infliximab)
  • Admitting patients who need special procedures like liver biopsy or ascitic tapping or CT guided tissue biopsy.
• Consultation to other departments: provide gastroenterology and hepatology consultation covered by assigned staff to all hospital departments.
• Endoscopy Unit: provide gastroenterology and hepatology consultation covered by assigned staff to all hospital departments .

Procedures are conducted on five mornings and five afternoons sessions in additions to the emergency and on-call 24/7 a week at the Unit. All endoscopic procedures are done by registrars or fellows and supervised by a Consultant.

Approximately following number of procedures are performed each year:

• Upper GI endoscopy (EGD) 1,500
• Colonoscopy 600-700
• Sigmoidoscopy 50
• Endoscopic ultrasound 100
• ERCP 250
• Liver biopsy 100
• Esophageal manometry 50
• 24 Hour pH monitoring 30

Numerous other procedures including endoscopic ultrasound, small bowel enteroscopy, H. pylori testing, esophageal stent placements, esophageal banding, sclerotherapy, breath tests, gastroduodenal and anorectal motility studies are performed. The GI Unit has introduced the recent procedure "Endoscopic Ultrasound" which started on 2nd quarter of 2004. It is quickly gaining recognition as the only equipped and advanced centre in this regard in Saudi Arabia