Digestive Health Institute

Considered one of the top hospitals in the nation for the treatment of digestive issues, we bring uncommon expertise to protecting your health and well-being. Here you’ll find the entire range of solutions needed to live better, whether that means the newest advance in GERD treatment or complex pancreatic surgery performed by one of the nation’s most successful and experienced surgical teams.

How we’re different

• Recognized as one of the nation’s highest-performing hospitals in gastroenterology and GI surgery, we offer a list of diagnostic and treatment options available at very few hospitals in the state.
• We’re experts in common conditions such as acid reflux and hernias, offering today’s most effective noninvasive and minimally invasive solutions. Yet we’re equally experienced in the complex, serving as a referral center in areas from esophageal cancer surgery to complicated polypectomies, allowing our interventional gastroenterologists to endoscopically remove large colon polyps that typically require surgery.
• Our pursuit of better, less invasive treatments is how we became a nationally recognized center of excellence in minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery. From colorectal and stomach cancer to hernia repair, we’re using cutting-edge robotic techniques to create more precision and dramatically shorter recoveries.

Bringing new answers to GERD

Specialists in restoring quality of life to those affected by acid reflux and uncontrolled heartburn, our interventional gastroenterologists and GI surgeons offer endoscopic and minimally invasive approaches to repair the integrity of the lower esophageal sphincter and cure GERD. Our specialized foregut surgeons routinely use advances such as robot-assisted tailored fundoplication, robot-assisted LINX magnetic sphincter augmentation and transoral incisionless fundoplication, or TIF—often combining these treatments with hernia repair in the same minimally invasive procedure.

If GERD has progressed to Barrett’s esophagus, incisionless techniques such as cryotherapy, radiation ablation and endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) allow us to destroy the abnormal or cancerous cells without surgery.

Leaders in interventional endoscopy

We offer the most successful interventional endoscopy procedures in use today, letting our interventional gastroenterologists successfully diagnose and treat problems from inside the digestive tract while eliminating the need for open surgery. And we’re using these less invasive techniques to revolutionize the care of digestive diseases.

Our patients benefit from therapies available at only a handful of medical centers in Southern California, including double balloon enteroscopy, which permits, for the first time, the entire 20- foot small intestine to be examined. For difficult-to-diagnose symptoms such as GI bleeding or abdominal pain, this noninvasive but technically challenging procedure is a game-changing advance that our interventional endoscopists are using to elevate treatment and outcomes. 

A unique focus on digestive cancers

Advanced endoscopic techniques let us identify and treat cancer in dramatically new ways. For instance, radiofrequency ablation or thermal heat is used by our experts to painlessly destroy certain bile duct and pancreas cancers. Large esophageal polyps—even those deemed unresectable by other medical centers—are often removed endoscopically here, driving improvements in recovery, complications and outcomes.

If more complex care is needed, our digestive cancer program within the Crosson Cancer Institute brings together foregut surgeons, colorectal surgeons, subspecialty-trained gastroenterologists, hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeons, thoracic surgeons, medical oncologists, interventional radiologists and radiation oncologists to provide highly successful treatment for both common and rare cancers. Biweekly cancer conferences ensure the participation and input of nearly a dozen disciplines to a patient’s care, creating the ultimate “second opinion” for diagnosis and treatment.

Involved in some of the nation’s top research collaboratives, we are leaders in bringing new therapies from the lab to the bedside—helping to change the standard of care in areas from pancreatic to gastric cancers. Clinical trials of new therapies capable of targeting the molecular profile of an individual’s cancer are putting our doctors at the forefront of creating often dramatic improvements in outcomes.

By bringing together experts in their field who share a commitment to exceptional outcomes, the St. Jude Digestive Health Institute continues to rapidly advance care while measurably improving lives.

To make an appointment, please call 714-446-5831.