The barium meal was made, but the gastroscopy was refused. The stomach pain of many years came back, and the pain was so strong in the middle of the night that he stayed up all night. Early in the morning, Mr. Hu, an executive in a foreign company, rushed to the outpatient clinic to see a doctor. The gastroenterologist suggested Mr. Hu to have a gastroscopy. Mr. Hu disagreed at first, insisting that he was suffering from gastritis, and took out the barium meal report of his digestive tract, which showed no abnormality during last week’s examination, as evidence. The doctor patiently explained to Mr. Hu and finally convinced him to undergo a gastroscopy. After the gastroscopy, Mr. Hu took the report with “duodenal bulb ulcer (active stage)” and said, “So it’s an ulcer, how come the barium meal indicates nothing?” The doctor told him, “Your ulcer is relatively large, and if you don’t treat it actively, serious complications such as perforation, bleeding and obstruction will occur, and then the danger will be greatly increased, and you may have to have surgery.” Stomach pain is one of the most common symptoms in gastroenterology clinics and is the reason why many patients seek medical attention. There are many causes of stomach pain, and many patients simply think it is caused by gastritis, thus refusing the doctor’s suggestion to perform gastroscopy, which can easily lead to missed diagnosis of peptic ulcers, bile reflux, and even malignant diseases such as gastric cancer. Due to unclear diagnosis, it not only affects the treatment effect, recurrent symptoms and increases patients’ pain, but more seriously, it may lead to perforation of the digestive tract, hemorrhage, pyloric obstruction, tumor development, etc., so that good treatment opportunities are missed. Therefore, gastroenterologists will often say to patients with stomach pain: “You have stomach pain for so long, you need to make a gastroscopy for a clear diagnosis, in order to get better treatment.” Gastroscopy, clear understanding The top of the gastroscope is installed with a “miniature camera” with a light bulb, the top of the examination is sent to the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, light bulbs to illuminate these parts, the “miniature camera” will be obtained by the light energy into electrical energy, and then by the video After processing by the video processor, the image will be displayed on the TV monitor. The examining physician can use the images of the TV monitor to observe the patient’s esophagus, stomach, and duodenum visually, precisely, and from multiple angles, so as to discover various lesions such as inflammation, ulcers, polyps, and tumors in these areas, and to describe the location of the lesions in detail through depth positioning, four-wall positioning, and site positioning, so as to indicate the direction for the necessary surgical procedures. If gastroscopy reveals abnormalities, such as roughness, color change, texture change or erosion, ulcer, nodule, polyp, depression, bulge, etc., special biopsy forceps can be used to enter the patient’s esophagus, stomach, duodenum and other cavities through the tube to remove these abnormal tissues and then conduct further laboratory tests to clarify the disease, which is what doctors call “pathological biopsy This is what doctors call a “pathological biopsy”. However, during gastroscopy, the mirror needs to be inserted through the mouth and throat, which can cause varying degrees of discomfort to the patient, so most people are more likely to accept a barium meal examination that only requires swallowing barium. However, the barium meal examination mainly reflects the lesion indirectly, and has better observation ability for the two kinds of lesions, such as depression and elevation, but lacks “vigilance” for mucosal roughness, color change and some flat lesions. Mr. Hu’s indented ulcer escaped the “eyes” of the barium meal, which shows the limitations of the barium meal, not to mention the lesion to be taken and sent for biopsy. Compared with the intuitive and precise gastroscopy, barium meal in the clear cause of stomach pain is obviously “incompetent”. Gastroscopy, safe and effective Gastroscopy is not available for patients with severe heart and lung disease, psychiatric disorders, acute perforation of the gastrointestinal tract, acute severe pharyngeal disorders affecting the insertion of the gastroscope, or the acute stage of corrosive esophageal injury. Each gastroscopist will first rule out these conditions before performing the examination. Domestic and foreign scholars have conducted statistics on millions of patients who underwent gastroscopy and found that the percentage of complications was extremely low. Therefore, in general, gastroscopy has a high level of safety, which has been confirmed by years of widespread use. A simple and safe gastroscopy can reveal the patient’s esophagus, stomach and duodenum and can understand the cause of the patient’s stomach pain. Therefore, patients should remember that they should not refuse gastroscopy when they have stomach pain.