The role of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in primary care.

Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy has become a very useful procedure in detecting pathology and aiding the physician in the evaluation of a patient's problem. A review of one year's sample of 176 examinations performed by a family physician in a small rural hospital shows that there was an 83 percent correlation between pathologic diagnoses of directed biopsies and endoscopic diagnoses. However, there was only a 40 percent correlation between routine radiologic findings and endoscopic findings. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy has also proven to be a safe procedure that can be used to detect cancer more accurately, locate bleeding sites, and remove foreign bodies. This service can easily be made available to most patients by interested physicians.