Painless gastroscopy and colonoscopy, i.e., endoscopy under intravenous anesthesia, is a new technique in which patients are given an appropriate amount of anesthesia and sedation intravenously during endoscopy to complete the endoscopic consultation and treatment in a quiet, comfortable and painless state. Patients generally wake up naturally after the examination without physical discomfort or painful memories of the diagnostic process.
Painless gastroscopy, as opposed to general gastroscopy, means that the doctor administers anesthesia to the patient before the gastroscopy is performed, which reduces the examination time and also alleviates the patient’s pain. Under painless electronic gastroscopy, a number of minimally invasive treatments for gastrointestinal bleeding, polyps, and ulcer strictures can also be performed, saving patients from the pain of surgical incisions.
Painless gastroscopy is the combination of isoproterenol, fentanyl and lidocaine administered intravenously on top of ordinary gastroscopy. The patient quickly goes into a snoring state during gastroscopy and the cricopharyngeal muscles are more relaxed, which helps the gastroscope to advance. Cold light is delivered from the oral cavity through the esophagus and gastric lumen to the descending duodenum through a fiber optic tube only one centimeter in diameter, illuminating the esophagus, gastric lumen and duodenum. A miniature camera carried at the front of the gastroscope simultaneously and acutely records images of the lumen. The sharp, clear images of the lumen are dynamically presented on a high-definition video display screen.
The essence of painless colonoscopy is to inject an anesthetic drug with fast onset, short effective time and precise effect through intravenous before the examination, so that the patient can fall asleep within seconds and wake up early after completing all the examinations, and there will not be any discomfort and pain during the examination, so it is becoming more and more popular among patients.
Painless colonoscopy is caused by the use of drugs to cause central inhibition, thus making the patient quiet, non-anxious, reduced attention, forgetfulness, and slow action; it can improve the patient’s tolerance, reduce the stress response, thus eliminating fear and discomfort, so that the endoscopic examination and treatment operations can be carried out smoothly, and the patient is awake during the whole examination and can communicate verbally and cooperate with the examination.