gastroenterology and hepatology

When debilitating itching and fatigue prevented him from working, Rabbi Melvin Gruber turned to Mayo Clinic, where a series of specialized procedures allowed him to get back to teaching and sharing his knowledge with his community.

With his wife by his side and a team of experts at Mayo Clinic to help him through, Jim Heinl faced down a cancer recurrence and then went back to a life focused on family.

Esophageal cancer can be deadly if it's not caught early. Fortunately for Mary Helen Duggar, her Mayo Clinic doctors found her cancer when it could still be treated. Today she's working to help others learn more about the disease.

Jack Cawthon unabashedly brags about the secret sauce that is a hallmark of his renowned barbeque restaurant in Nashville, Tennesse, Jack's Bar-B-Que, where tourists and locals line up for Texas brisket and Tennessee pork shoulder. The iconic sauce remains a family secret and a vital part of the landmark restaurant located on the honkytonk strip on lower Broadway in downtown Nashville. These days, however, the Barbeque King is a fan of a whole different kind of secret sauce.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — An article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine updates the medical community on a potentially devastating [...]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Current national guidelines provide benchmarks regarding the number of polyps physicians should detect, on average, during a colonoscopy. Recent studies [...]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Most people know a colonoscopy requires some preparation by the patient. Now, a Mayo Clinic physician suggests an additional step to [...]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — August 29, 2012.  Removing the entire pancreas in patients with cancer or precancerous cysts in part of the organ does not result in unmanageable diabetes — as many physicians previously believed, research at Mayo Clinic in Florida has found. The study, published online Sunday in the journal HPB Surgery, evaluates how well patients who had their entire pancreas removed could control their resulting diabetes. The pancreas produces insulin to remove sugar from the blood, so when the organ is gone, insulin must be replaced, usually through an external pump or with injections. The researchers examined control of insulin over several years in 14 patients whose entire pancreas was removed. They compared their findings with 100 people with type 1 diabetes, and must use insulin replacement. They found both groups had little difficulty controlling their blood sugar, and no complications resulted. The findings should reassure physicians and surgeons that removing the entire pancreas is reasonably safe and effective, says senior investigator Michael B. Wallace, M.D., chair of the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Florida. "What has confounded surgery for pancreatic cancers and precancerous cysts for a long time is the notion that if the entire organ is removed, patients will have great difficulty in controlling the resulting diabetes," Dr. Wallace says. "Most surgeons try to leave as much of the pancreas as possible". "What we have shown here is that, due to wonderful recent improvements in insulin therapy, patients without a pancreas can control their blood sugar as effectively as type 1 diabetes patients can," he says. Although this study was small, Dr. Wallace says the findings are mirrored in the experiences of patients treated at Mayo Clinic in Florida with total pancreas removal. Even though the approach of preserving as much of the pancreas as possible benefits most patients, leaving part of the pancreas in some patients may put them at risk of developing hard-to-detect cancer in the remaining organ, he says.