Your doctor might recommend a gastroscopy examination if you have certain symptoms including nausea, vomiting, difficulty swallowing, heartburn, upper abdominal pain that does not go away, unexplained weight loss and bloating.
Gastroscopy is also used as a routine screening for people who have a history of ulcers or polyps, to screen for stomach cancer and to check for abnormal findings that showed on previous CT scans or x-ray tests.
Gastroscopy can be used to treat certain conditions like removing a foreign body that has been swallowed by accident such as a fishbone. It can also be used to stop bleeding from ulcers, and cut out polyps (non-cancerous growths) or small stomach tumours.