Early postoperative endoscopy in the operated stomach.

Early endoscopy in the upper alimentary tract after surgical operations on the stomach reveals multifarious diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities to give decisive help to patients when applied critically and rationally. The possibilities of endoscopy can differentiate between active and arrested bleeding episodes, can induce hemostasis, can diagnose and overcome sutureline insufficiencies, can differentiate the different kinds of stenosis in the lower esophageal junction. It can treat postoperative atony, diagnose perforation at an earlier stage, localize obstructive jaundice, remove intestinal foreign bodies and characterize unexpected postoperative histological findings.