The most effective means to discover and treat gastrointestinal diseases is gastroscopy, which is the key to early diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal lesions, and endoscopy has now become a routine examination for esophageal, gastric and intestinal diseases. Because gastroscopy is the most intuitive and accurate examination means irreplaceable by any other methods, gastroscopy and enteroscopy are very effective in early detection of gastrointestinal cancer.
Nowadays, gastroscopy and colonoscopy have become the gold standard for diagnosing gastrointestinal diseases and are known as the “protector of the digestive tract”. However, gastroscopy is painful, so many patients are reluctant to undergo it. According to relevant data, 50% of patients who have undergone gastroscopy are reluctant to undergo further examination due to pain, and 30% of patients have fear of gastroscopy. Painless gastroscopy allows patients to complete the examination easily without suffering pain.
What is painless gastroscopy technology?
The pain caused by traditional gastroscopy cannot be ignored, especially for those old and frail patients with many and heavy comorbidities, as the mirror body passes through the pharynx, esophagus and intestines, it can cause nausea, vomiting, coughing, abdominal pain, increased blood pressure, and even induce complications such as angina pectoris, myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest.
Patients often feel unbearable pain and indescribable extreme discomfort, making endoscopy difficult, long operation time, and high rate of missed and misdiagnosis. Many patients with gastrointestinal diseases refuse the examination due to fear of pain, thus delaying timely diagnosis and treatment, making many microscopic diseases with good prognosis develop into persistent diseases and causing lifelong regrets.
The so-called painless gastroscopy is a more humane endoscopic examination and treatment technique in which the patient’s breathing and circulation are closely monitored by a monitor and the anesthesiologist uses new anesthetic drugs with fast onset, quick awakening and complete awakening – propofol, imipramine, etc., so that the patient can complete the whole examination and treatment process in a painless state.
During the examination, the anesthetic drugs are slowly pushed through the vein by experienced professional anesthesiologists under perfect monitoring facilities and safety assurance measures, and after about 1 minute, the patient enters a relaxed sleep state, and the endoscopist can carefully and calmly examine all parts of the gastrointestinal tract to make a more accurate diagnosis before conducting the examination. There are no after-effects. The whole process is not painful at all, and there are no reactions such as nausea, choking and coughing, abdominal pain during traditional gastroscopy, avoiding serious consequences such as angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, and its high safety has been confirmed.
What are the advantages of painless gastroenteroscopy treatment?
1.Safety The anesthesiologist’s skillful monitoring and management techniques of the respiratory and circulatory system make painless gastroscopy much safer.
2. Comfortable The state of superficial general anesthesia makes you have no memory of the operation, no pain, and quick recovery after the operation. This makes more and more people willing to perform endoscopy and more and more people to review.
3.Expansion of indications Patients with hypertension, schizophrenia, epilepsy and children who were not suitable for gastroscopy can also undergo gastroscopy, which makes gastroscopy more popular.
4, conducive to the development of gastroscopic treatment so that many diseases that originally required caesarean surgery can be cured through minimally invasive endoscopic surgery, greatly saving medical costs and reducing patient pain.
5.Patients can cooperate well with doctors It is conducive to thorough examination and treatment, discovering subtle lesions, reducing the damage caused by the patient’s body movement, reducing the rate of misdiagnosis and leakage, and shortening the treatment time.
6.Avoid adverse reactions
The implementation of endoscopic treatment technology under anesthesia and the overall preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative nursing care by nurses make patients free of fear and improve their tolerance; avoid the adverse effects on the body such as breath-holding, blood pressure and heart rate change caused by stimulating the vegetative nerves.
What are the indications for painless gastroenteroscopy treatment?
At present, the incidence of gastrointestinal tumors is increasing, and the high incidence of colorectal cancer in China is 40-50 years old, and in recent years, there is a tendency of youthfulness, with 12% of young people under 30 years old. Therefore, people with abnormal symptoms of gastrointestinal tract should be examined in time for early examination and early prevention and treatment. Some experts suggest that
1. People with gastrointestinal cancer in their direct family members have 6 times higher incidence rate than others, so it is recommended to have regular gastroscopy. People over 50 years old who have gastrointestinal cancer in their non-direct family members should be more alert and may have early examination.
2.If the following symptoms persist for two weeks or more, you should seek medical consultation as soon as possible;
1. Upper abdominal distension and pain, indigestion with wasting and general weakness.
2.Change in stool habit, such as frequent diarrhea or constipation recently; mucus in stool; thin stool shape compared with before.
3. Vomiting of blood and black stools, or the presence of bright red or dark red blood and mucus in the stool.
4.Incidental urgency, i.e., always feeling that the stool has not been excreted.
5, unexplained anemia, positive fecal occult blood, abdominal masses felt, be highly suspicious.
3.People with history of gastrointestinal polyps should have regular gastroscopy follow-up to prevent recurrence or cancer.
4.Postoperative gastrointestinal tumor must have regular gastroscopy, usually once a year, to prevent recurrence or multiple primary gastrointestinal tumors.
In addition, the U.S. proposes the following recommendations for bowel cancer screening in general population: fecal occult blood examination – once a year after 50 years old; rectal examination – once a year after 40 years old; colonoscopy – once every 3-5 years after 50 years old. Our experts suggest that the first examination should be conducted after the age of 40, regardless of whether there are digestive system symptoms.
Painless gastrointestinal technology has a wide range of adaptations and may even become a health checkup item, but it is not all contraindicated. Painless endoscopy is not recommended for patients with severe colds, massive vomiting of blood, pregnant and lactating women, allergic to anesthetic drugs and end-stage patients with vital organ failure. For more detailed contraindications, please consult the relevant specialist (e.g. anesthesiologist, endoscopist).