Gastroendoscopy flow
preparation for gastroendoscopy
- On the day before the examination, please have dinner by 8:00 p.m. No food is allowed after 8:00 p.m., but you may drink water.
- On the day of the examination, please come to the clinic without breakfast. You may drink a glass of water.
- If you are taking regular medications (for blood pressure, heart, asthma, etc.), please take them early in the morning (around 8:00 am).
- Please come to the clinic in clothing that is easy to put on and take off, and refrain from wearing jewelry and accessories.
Gastroendoscopy flow
- After your visit, you will be asked to drink water with medicine to clean out your stomach.
- To make the endoscopy easier, a light sedative injection is given.
- A spray anesthetic is applied to the throat.
- The endoscope is inserted through the throat and the examination begins. The examination takes about 5 minutes.
After the gastroendoscopy
Please do not drive a car after the examination, as it is very dangerous.
Notes
- If you are taking medications that prevent blood from clotting (such as the anti-coagulant pediatric bufferin, warfarin, or panardin), it will be difficult to stop bleeding when tissue samples are taken. For this reason, we used to ask patients to stop taking the medication 3 days prior to the examination, but due to the adverse effects of such discontinuation, we now ask patients to continue taking the medication without discontinuation. Please be assured that when the tissue is harvested, endoscopic hemostasis is performed.
- Anesthetic spray is applied to the throat. Please inform us if you are allergic to anesthetics or medications.
- If you think you have a strong throat reflex and find gastroendoscopy uncomfortable, or if you feel that your previous examinations were painful, please feel free to offer to help.
About Gastric Cancer Screening
About Barium Test and Endoscopy
Until now, the mainstream of gastric cancer screening has been the barium test. However, gastroendoscopy, which can observe the inside of the stomach in the same way as a video camera, provides more detailed observation and diagnosis than barium examination, which is like looking at shadow pictures inside the stomach. Furthermore, if cancer is suspected, tissue samples can be taken during endoscopy and sent for pathological examination. Endoscopy is recommended over barium examination.
What is gastroendoscopy?
People used to say, “Endoscopy is painful.” However, endoscopes are thinner and softer than before, and even those who have difficulty with throat reflexes can now undergo the examination comfortably, almost asleep, by using a sedative and analgesic in combination. For the detection of early-stage gastric cancer, current endoscopes have extremely clear image quality and magnification up to 100 times, enabling accurate diagnosis that is close to pathological diagnosis.
咽頭・食道がん検診について
The pharynx and esophagus are transit points on the way from the mouth to the stomach and must be carefully observed during gastroendoscopy. While observation with normal light (white light) is effective in detecting gastric cancer, observation of the pharynx, larynx, and esophagus with NBI, a special blue light, makes it easier to detect early-stage cancer. For this reason, gastroendoscopy uses a high-resolution magnifying endoscope to detect early-stage cancer. The area from the throat to the esophagus is observed with NBI, while the area from the stomach to the duodenum is observed with normal light (white light).
Concerned about esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is more likely to occur in people who are “flashers” whose faces turn red when they drink, and those who drink alcohol despite this flushing need to be careful.
For the detection of esophageal cancer, we believe that the use of a high quality magnifying endoscope and special light NBI observation will lead to the early detection of esophageal cancer.
