Dr. Raj Vigna Venugopal

Dr. Raj Vigna Venugopal is HOD & Consultant - Medical Gastroenterology at Manipal Hospital, Old Airport Road, Bengaluru. He completed MBBS at TD Medical College, Alappuzha, MD in General Medicine at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, and DM in Gastroenterology at SGPGI, Lucknow. His subsequent international training has focused on endoscopic ultrasound and advanced therapeutic endoscopy.

His current practice centres on EUS-guided interventions, therapeutic ERCP and third-space endoscopy. Manipal lists Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy for achalasia, Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection and Endoscopic Mucosal Resection for selected early gastrointestinal lesions, together with complex pancreaticobiliary procedures. He also treats inflammatory bowel disease and gastrointestinal oncology cases requiring endoscopic assessment.

Dr. Venugopal helped establish Karnataka's first endosonography unit in 2006, and Manipal records experience in around 1,500 diagnostic and therapeutic endosonography cases. His advanced training includes centres in France, the Netherlands, the United States, Malaysia and South Korea, as well as European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy certification in advanced endoscopy.

He is involved in postgraduate training, research and DNB examination work, with publications covering Crohn disease, intestinal tuberculosis, gallbladder cancer, pancreatitis and therapeutic endoscopy.

He speaks English, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil. For complex GI cases, useful records include endoscopy, CT or MRI/MRCP, pathology and previous procedure reports. Procedure selection depends on lesion anatomy, diagnosis, staging and prior treatment. His current work also supports multidisciplinary planning for complex gastrointestinal and pancreaticobiliary referrals.