What are the risks of gastrointestinal endoscopy?
Dr Tan Chi Chiu discusses the common concerns patients have before undertaking an endoscopic procedure of the digestive system
Many patients have anxieties before undergoing endoscopy, says Dr Tan. The thought that a flexible instrument is going to enter the mouth and into the oesophagus, stomach and the intestines or up into the colon, fills patients with dreadful pictures.
One common and reasonable worry is pain. However, today endoscopy is done very comfortably using sedative techniques. Medicines will bring about a state of relaxation, hence patients do not experience any discomfort during the procedure. When they wake up, they will have no memory of it.
When patients have to undergo a colonoscopy some bowel preparation is necessary. Patients have to drink some laxative liquids in order to purge out all the faeces. This is a relatively easy procedure where the patient merely experiences the need to go to the toilet to pass motion. As the motion becomes more and more liquid the colon is being cleaned out. At that point, the patient's colon is clean enough for a successful colonoscopy.
Sedation for colonoscopy is very safe and the vast majority of patients do not have any problems with it. Only in the rarest instances, due to hyper-reactivity of the patient to the medicine or an unknown allergy, some complications with sedation may arise, but they are not worrying. During the procedure the endoscope can also cause a perforation of the wall of the digestive system. This is a rare occurrence and may happen when you have a diseased digestive system or an inexperienced endoscopist performing the procedure. This complication is also very rare.
If endoscopists have to conduct therapeutic procedures like polyp removal, the procedure carries a small risk of bleeding.
Dr Tan Chi Chiu is a clinical gastroenterologist, hepatologist and specialist in internal medicine at Gastroenterology and Medicine International. He can be reached at +65 6471 2212.
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