GASTROSCOPY
GENERAL INFORMATION
Gastroscopy is looking down into your stomach with a
special instrument called a gastroscope. A
gastroscopy is done for several reasons. This is a
very common procedure and your doctor would have
explained to you why you need it.
DIAGNOSIS
There are several ways to investigate the stomach.
Only with a gastroscopy, however, can the inside of
the stomach be seen directly.
PRE-PROCEDURE PREPARATION
- Do not eat or drink anything for 6 hours before
the procedure.
- You will be given an intravenous injection or
infusion with sedation. You will feel drowsy.
- Your throat will be sprayed with a local
anaesthetic and your throat will feel numb or
swollen or dry.
THE PROCEDURE
- The gastroscope is an instrument with lenses in it
and a light at its tip. It is smooth, flexible, and
almost as big as your little finger.
- You will be positioned on a comfortable table.
Your mouth and throat will be sprayed to make them
numb.
- You will be given medicine to keep you drowsy
during the procedure. The gastroscope will be
introduced gently into your mouth and then into your
throat and down your gullet, which will also be
examined on the way down to the stomach.
- When in the stomach the tip of the gastroscope can
be turned in all directions and the wall of the
stomach can be examined thoroughly. The gastroscope
will be advanced through the exit of the stomach and
into the duodenum for about 15cm.
- If anything suspicious is seen, a tiny piece will
be taken (a biopsy) for examination in the
laboratory.
- When the examination is complete the gastroscope
is removed.
- The medicine that made you feel drowsy will be
stopped and you should become alert again quickly.
- The entire procedure takes around 30 minutes. Most
patients remember very little of the procedure and
think it took only a few minutes.
- When your blood pressure, pulse and breathing are
stable and you are completely alert, you should be
able to go home with a responsible adult.
- Your doctor will discuss the results of the
gastroscopy with you.
AFTERCARE
- In one to two hours, when your throat is not numb
any longer, you may eat or drink.
- You may not drive or work for the rest of the day.
COMPLICATIONS
- Complications are infrequent after a gastroscopy.
It is important however for you to remember the
following.
- Very rarely the gastroscope may perforate an
organ. In the unlikely event that this happens, you
will have to have an operation to have this
perforation repaired.
- If a biopsy is done, very infrequently there may
be a large bleed. Your doctor will decide how best
to manage this.
pil-gastroscopy.doc/ver2/10 January 2002 |
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