Our goal is to detect diseases at an early stage in order to offer our patients gentle treatment.

At our abdominal center at Vivomed - Gastroenterology Bern, we have in-depth expertise in all treatment and diagnostic options in abdominal medicine. As an independent institution, we can advise our patients individually, free from constraints such as bed occupancy, case mix, minimum case numbers, or operating room utilization, and find the best possible treatment for you.

Our patients have a personal contact person for nursing and medical issues. Dr. Schlosser cares for his patients with the highest level of expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. For the treatment of obesity, there is an interdisciplinary network of various specialists offering conservative, medicinal, endoscopic, and bariatric surgical treatment options.

All Vivomed employees work together according to the same guidelines, algorithms, and standard operating procedures.

If you have a disease of the abdominal organs, Vivomed - Gastroenterology Bern will provide you with comprehensive, targeted care and treatment in an effective, timely, uncomplicated, and professional manner.

This depends on the location, i.e., the section of the gastrointestinal tract to be examined, and whether it is a purely diagnostic or also a therapeutic examination. A purely diagnostic gastroscopy normally takes around 15-30 minutes and also includes an assessment of the duodenum and esophagus. A colonoscopy, for example for preventive purposes, takes 20-40 minutes. If any procedures need to be performed, the examination time will be longer.

This depends on the location, i.e., the section of the gastrointestinal tract to be examined, and whether it is a purely diagnostic or also a therapeutic examination. A purely diagnostic gastroscopy normally takes around 15-30 minutes and also includes an assessment of the duodenum and esophagus. A colonoscopy, for example for preventive purposes, takes 20-40 minutes. If any procedures need to be performed, the examination time will be longer.

In addition to the signed information sheets and registration forms, please always bring the following documents with you to your first appointment:

• Insurance card
• Previous findings from other doctors
• Diagnosis list 
• List of medications

If the documents are stored with specialists or your family doctor, we would be grateful if you could send them to us before your examination.

If you have the documents yourself, you can also send them to us in digital form by email or as an attachment when booking online.

As a preventive measure, a colonoscopy is recommended for everyone aged 50 and over, regardless of whether they have any symptoms and/or illnesses. This procedure removes lesions that could later develop into cancer, thereby prolonging life. If there are warning signs (e.g., unintentional weight loss), an endoscopy is recommended as soon as possible, regardless of age. 

An upper endoscopy (examination of the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum: esophagogastroduodenoscopy) should be performed in cases of bloody vomiting and persistent symptoms such as difficulty swallowing or vomiting. A colonoscopy is indicated in cases of blood in the stool or chronic diarrhea. However, even in patients without warning signs, an endoscopic examination can be useful and valuable as part of the diagnostic process. This may be the case, for example, in cases of digestive problems that persist despite taking antacid medication.

Endoscopy means "seeing inside," i.e., it is an examination of the inside of the body, the gastrointestinal tract. During an endoscopy, a flexible tube (endoscope) is inserted into the digestive tract through the mouth or anus. The latest generation of endoscopes enables excellent assessment of the mucous membrane with outstanding light and image quality and 4K resolution. Depending on the examination, special endoscopes with different lengths and additional functions (e.g., linear endosonography) are used along the entire length from the mouth to the anus. 

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Endoscopic examinations are not normally painful. You may experience some discomfort or a feeling of pressure from the air insufflated when the endoscope is inserted through the mouth or anus after the examination. 

The colon must be cleansed before a colonoscopy. We ask that you drink the recommended medication to prepare your colon at the specified times before the examination. You should also drink 1 liter of a clear liquid of your choice. Before the colonoscopy, you should avoid raw vegetables, raw fruit, and high-fiber foods (e.g., whole grain products, legumes such as beans and lentils) for three days. We will provide you with detailed instructions before the examination.

A combination of gastroscopy and colonoscopy is always possible and is a very efficient procedure for clarifying unclear symptoms. 

Yes. Normally, diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic examinations proceed without problems and as originally planned. Complications during purely diagnostic endoscopies are very rare and usually not serious. Mild side effects such as nausea, vomiting, or abdominal pain are treated with infusions, and the patient can go home without any complaints. Moderate complications such as bleeding or tears in the mucous membrane can usually be treated and cared for during the examination. Serious complications such as perforations, which require laparoscopy or other surgical or medical treatment, are extremely rare. Even in these cases, injuries can often be repaired with the endoscope. However, clinical monitoring after such an event is still necessary.

As a patient, there are several ways to make an appointment for an endoscopy with us:
 

1. Self-referral
   1. You have health insurance with free choice of doctor: Direct online registration with appointment scheduling
2. Referral via your family doctor:
   1. with free choice of doctor
   2. with insurance in the family doctor model
   3. with insurance in the HMO model
3. Referral via your Telemed model: 
   1. You can usually specify Vivomed Gastroenterology Bern as the specialist gastroenterology & hepatology provider for further treatment and then make an appointment with us.
        
   2. In rare cases, your insurer will specify the specialist you must see.

How to reach us:

• Phone (031.3333236)
• Email (vivomed@hin.ch)
• Online appointment booking

For initial consultations, we would be grateful if you could send us your previous findings, diagnosis list, and medication list in advance by email or as attachments when booking online. 

You must have an empty stomach for an endoscopy: 

This means that you must not eat any solid food for 6 hours. You must not drink any liquids for 2 hours before the examination. For a colonoscopy, there are additional dietary rules that you must follow in the days leading up to the examination.

To make the examination as comfortable and safe as possible for you, we usually administer a sedative to our patients before and during the endoscopy. This allows us to achieve optimal examination conditions. As your reaction time may be impaired for up to 24 hours after the examination, you must not drive any motor vehicles for 24 hours. You should also refrain from entering into any legal transactions. If you have traveled to the hospital privately, you will need someone who is fit to drive to accompany you on your journey home. Alternatively, we recommend traveling to and from the hospital by public transport.

After a purely diagnostic gastroscopy or colonoscopy, you may eat and drink again immediately after the examination. We will serve you a light snack in a relaxed atmosphere. Special examinations and interventions require a short-term adjustment to your diet. Your doctor, Dr. Schlosser, will inform you of this after the examination.

Once you are sufficiently awake after the examination, your doctor, Dr. Schlosser, will talk to you and explain the findings of the examination. If tissue samples were taken during the endoscopy, these must first be stained and examined under a microscope in the pathology department. In most cases, the results are available after 3-4 working days.

In order to obtain a clear view during colonoscopy, it is essential to distend the colon with gas. This is usually done using room air, which is insufflated into the intestine via the endoscope in quantities of up to 15 liters per examination. Since room air is poorly absorbed by the intestinal mucosa, this air remains trapped in the intestine. Many patients therefore report at least unpleasant, often painful flatulence and abdominal cramps when they wake up after the examination. Although this is ultimately a medically harmless occurrence, many patients remember this time after the examination as unpleasant. For this reason, we use CO2 during colonoscopy. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by the colon mucosa 150 times faster than room air. The insufflated CO2 gas is then transported to the lungs with the blood, just like the CO2 that is continuously produced in the body throughout life through combustion processes, and exhaled unnoticed. The aforementioned flatulence and abdominal pain after colonoscopy are now a thing of the past.

If there are no symptoms, the first preventive examination should be carried out 10 years before the age at which the disease occurred in other family members. Regular colonoscopies every 5 years are recommended in cases of familial clustering. In cases of polyposis syndromes (FAP, aFAP, MAP), you will need to consult a specialist.