Upper endoscopy

This page was reviewed under our medical and editorial policy by

Maurie Markman, MD, President, Medicine & Science.

This page was reviewed on March 3, 2022.

Your upper digestive tract consists of your esophagus, stomach and duodenum, which is where your small intestine starts. Sometimes, it’s necessary for doctors to examine the lining of your upper digestive tract. An upper endoscopy may be the best way to see it.

Your doctor may refer to an upper endoscopy as an esophagogastroduodenoscopy, or EGD. They are the same procedure. Another term that may be used for it is gastroscopy.

During an upper endoscopy, a thin, flexible tube equipped with a light and small video camera is inserted into your mouth and threaded down your throat into your esophagus and stomach until it reaches your small intestine.

Why you may need an upper endoscopy

• Investigate why you’re experiencing symptoms such as trouble swallowing, heartburn, fullness that comes on quickly, bloody vomit or cough, or unexplained weight loss
• Examine an abnormal area seen on another imaging test such as an X-ray or computed tomography (CT) scan 
• Take biopsy samples of the esophagus, stomach or small intestine, and determine whether cancer is present
• Treat a blockage in your digestive tract or other issues caused by a tumor
• Monitor how well your cancer treatment is working

Six ways to prepare for an upper endoscopy

• Before your procedure, be sure to remove your watch or other jewelry. If you wear dentures, you must remove them too.
• Tell your care team about any medicines you take, including vitamins, herbs and supplements, and whether you are allergic to any medicines.
• If you take a blood thinner, you may be asked to stop a few days before the procedure. This includes baby aspirin.
• Don’t eat or drink for six to eight hours before your upper endoscopy.
• This test is done under a sedative to help keep you comfortable. Arrange for someone to drive you home afterward.
• Be sure to ask questions if there’s anything you don’t understand.

What happens during an upper endoscopy

The procedure is typically performed as an outpatient procedure.

First, your throat is sprayed with numbing medicine. Or, you may be asked to gargle with a liquid that numbs the throat.

Next, you’ll be asked to lie on your left side on the examination table and given a sedative. Some sedatives keep you drowsy but awake. If necessary, your doctor may perform your upper endoscopy under general anesthesia. Speak with your doctor about which option is best for you.

A mouthpiece is placed to keep your mouth open during the procedure.

The scope is guided down your throat as far as the start of your small intestine. Doctors are able to see images of your digestive tract and to examine specific areas of concern. They can take color photographs for further review.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to pump air into your stomach so the images are easier to see.

The procedure takes about 15 minutes to a half hour.

You will be observed for a while to make sure you’re OK and until the sedative wears off. You should be able to go home after a few hours. In rare cases, some people may stay in the hospital overnight.

Benefits and risks of upper endoscopy

An upper endoscopy provides better detail than a CT scan or an upper gastrointestinal (GI) series, which uses X-rays.

However, there are some risks to consider. These include:

• If you had a biopsy as part of your procedure, you may experience bleeding at the site.
• Your mouth and throat may be numb for a couple of hours. You may be hoarse or cough for a couple of days afterward.
• Some people react to the sedative with breathing difficulties, low blood pressure and a slow heartbeat. Or, you may have a reaction to the anesthesia.
• A perforation could occur in the lining of your digestive tract during the procedure and require surgery.
• It’s possible to develop an infection.

If you have any symptoms that are unexplained, including bleeding that doesn’t stop, call your doctor’s office and ask what you should do.

When you can expect results

Results typically take a few days. If you had a biopsy during the procedure, the results may take a little longer. The samples that were taken need to be studied in a pathology laboratory.

Your doctors should follow up with you once the results are available. The results can help guide your treatment.

CT Scan Vs. Endoscopy: All You Need To Know

Medical tests can get confusing if you want to know the in-depth details. If you are curious like I am, you might have scratched your head several times trying to figure out the topic: CT Scan Vs. Endoscopy. No need to scratch your head anymore, as you will find out the facts that lie within.

CT scan and endoscopy are basic medical tests that physicians suggest for advanced diagnosis. To simply state, computerized tomography scan or CT scan uses X-Ray to generate images of your internal organs like your heart, brain, and more.

On the other hand, the top surface of the gastrointestinal tract is imaged using an endoscopy. The method uses a long tube with a camera at the end, known as an endoscope. Hence, the name endoscopy.

To know more about CT Scan Vs. Endoscopy, read the rest.

What Is A CT Scan?

The computerized tomography scan is a wonder of modern medical science. Doctors nowadays widely use the method to diagnose some of the most hard-to-find diseases. CT scan uses an X-Ray to produce images of your internal organs without any direct physical contact. 

How Does CT Scan Work?

CT scan takes a series of pictures of your body using its efficient X-Ray imagery system. The images are taken from different angles and then processed with a computer. The result is a high-quality image of the slice of your organ, also known as a cross-sectional image.

Doctors then can analyze the high-quality image to the deepest level to figure out the problems. 

When To Do A CT Scan?

Doctors suggest a CT scan for a wide range of objectives. One primary aim is to locate internal injuries, challenging to detect from the outside.

A CT scan can quickly investigate almost any part of your body from the inside. The reason for performing a CT scan includes-

• Locating bone cracks
• Spotting a tumor
• Guiding radiation therapy
• Investigating internal bleeding or injuries
• Verifying treatment effects
• Monitoring severe diseases like cancers

Getting Ready For A Ct Scan

CT scan is a quick and effective method of diagnosis. However, before going through the scan, you will need some previous preparations.

As the scanning includes using an X-Ray, you should not have any metal object with you while scanning. In addition, avoid heavy clothing.

In most cases, hospitals prefer wearing their gown.

Moreover, you should not eat or drink anything before the diagnosis process – usually for a couple of hours.

What Is An Endoscopy?

CT Scan Vs. Endoscopy: Before diving deeper, let’s get to know the endoscopy a bit.

Like the CT scan, the Endoscopy is also an effective way to diagnose diseases inside your body. The method uses a particular instrument called an Endoscope to create images of your internal body.

Endoscopy also requires some preparation – no eating or drinking before the test. Even after the test, you may not have any appetite for food.

How Does Endoscopy work?

Endoscopy requires an instrument, an endoscope, to perform the test.

An Endoscope is a long tube with a camera fit at its end. The tube is flexible enough to curve and make its way inside your body to its desired destination.

The camera, which also uses an illumination system, renders the image of your internals to a monitor where your doctor can see if something is wrong or not. 

Doctors can insert the endoscope through your mouth or rectum, depending on your condition and diagnosis.

Nowadays, many hospitals use a wireless capsule endoscopy for advanced diagnosis. You have to swallow a capsule with a built-in camera in this process. Like any other tablet you intake, the capsule travels inside you and sends images to computers for examination.

The capsule is safe and efficient to use. However, you may ask how much does a capsule endoscopy cost? It costs you about 500$ excluding all the other additional costs.

When Would The Doctor Recommend An Endoscopy?

Your doctor may suggest an Endoscopy if he suspects an internal anomaly. Some common symptoms to investigate are:

• Severe stomach ache
• Facing frequent diarrhea
• Difficulty swallowing
• Anomaly in your rectum
• Blood in your stool

Endoscopy has several names, depending on your diagnosis. If your doctor examines the intestine, stomach, or even the food pipe needs, It’s a gastroscopy.

If the doctor checks your colon, your doctor would recommend a colonoscopy. 

Preparation For An Endoscopy

Like any other test, an Endoscopy needs preparations.

Your doctor would suggest you stop drinking and eating for several hours before you go for the test. Depending on the requirement, you may also need to clear out your bowels – usually by taking a laxative.

Your internal body comes in physical contact with the test instrument during the test. Therefore, your doctor may recommend antibiotics to avoid infections.

CT Scan Vs. Endoscopy

Many factors come up when trying to figure out the differences between the two most effective diagnostic methods.

However, you don’t need to get anxious. Let me guide you through some of the significant factors.

Working Principle

A CT scan uses an X-Ray to scan your internal body without any physical contact. The technicians take layers of high-quality images from different angles and process them using a computer, providing in-depth observation.

The Endoscopy uses a flexible tube with a camera at the end that travels to your internal organ and takes pictures or live videos. But unlike a CT scan, it uses usual light imagery, offering a limited surface observation.

Area Of Expertise

As the CT scan uses an X-Ray to render images, doctors can use it to examine your internal body parts, which are hard to reach physically. The brain, heart, and inside of bones are parts that require a CT scan.  

Endoscopy provides a live feed from the internal organ. Doctors recommend the test to examine the digestive system that includes the esophagus and the duodenum. Sometimes, the endoscope comprises an ultrasound probe to provide a thorough examination of your stomach.

Preparations

Before a CT scan, you should remove any sort of metal wearing’s from your body. Usually, hospitals prefer you to wear their provided gown before going in that big doughnut-like chamber. Depending on the test, your doctor may limit your diet too. 

The preparations of an endoscopy depend on the body part the doctor wants to check. Doctors may suggest a laxative for a colonoscopy to keep your bowels clean. 

Your doctor might also ask you to shift to a fibrous diet before a few days of the test. In some cases, you may need antibiotics to avoid unnecessary infections during the test.

How it feels

A CT scan works without any physical contact with the actual instrument. You just lie in a bed that goes inside a chamber and lifts the bed. You don’t feel much except hearing some buzzing noises. The process is quick enough for you to feel almost nothing.

However, an endoscopy works by inserting the endoscope inside your body. Though the procedure is safe and painless, you can feel uncomfortable. The test takes around 15 to 45 minutes, often requiring a sedative to help you relax and feel at ease.

My Concierge, MD, comprises expert doctors, nurses, and technicians who can perform the test with 100% efficiency. In their expert hand, you will feel comfortable and always at ease.

After the Test

After a CT scan, you can return to your everyday routine and work. However, you may need to intake a lot of fluid to clear out the contrast material if you would take any.

The endoscopy also allows you to return to your routine life after the test. However, if you have taken any sedatives, you will need hours to return to your steady-state.  

Risks

The CT scan exposes you to radiation during the test more than the amount you get during a standard X-Ray. However, doctors use less harmful low doses of radiation; higher doses may increase cancer risk.

An endoscopy is relatively safe. Serious harms during or after the test are pretty rare. However, the two rarest side effects you may face are infection and internal tearing or piercing the organ.

However, you may ask, “why does my jaw hurt after endoscopy?” It’s a common question that may happen after opening your mouth for a long time. You may encounter jaw dislocations in rarest cases that need further medication attention.

However, My Concierge, MD, comprises specially trained doctors to handle super efficiency. They treat you with care to give you the best treatment that you deserve.

Take Away

CT Scan Vs. Endoscopy – now you know all the differences.

Ct scan and endoscopy are two tests that doctors often suggest to perform a further examination of your internal organs. Both tests are safe; however, a healthcare center with highly trained doctors can only give 100% comfort, safety, and accuracy of the tests.

My Concierge, Md, is the best healthcare center for you offering expert doctors, nurses, and technicians. They perform the tests with optimum security and accuracy, which you rightly deserve.

90,000 Ultrasound, MRI, CT or endoscopy? Doctor Maskin called the most harmful research method

• Health

Often at the doctor’s office we hear that it is necessary to do an ultrasound, undergo an endoscopy or perform an MRI. How safe are these procedures, can they harm?

April 17 202324

Source:

iStockphoto

Today, to make an accurate diagnosis, doctors rarely get by with just a conversation with a person and the results of simple tests. To accurately determine the disease itself and its severity, the level of damage to internal organs, specialists prescribe a number of diagnostic procedures.

Ultrasound, MRI, CT, X-ray, endoscopy are prescribed for children and adults. How these diagnostic methods differ from each other and how often such studies can be carried out so as not to harm health, Maxim Maskin, the head physician of the Hemotest laboratory, told Doctor Peter.

Ultrasound: fast, painless and visual

Most often, people are prescribed an ultrasound examination of various organs or parts of the body. It is done using a special device equipped with a sensor and a computer, on the screen of which the doctor sees the results.

In fact, ultrasound is the effect of a sound wave, thanks to which the doctor sees the organ “alive”, in dynamics. For example, it may consider the inflection of the vessel, contraction of the stomach or bladder. This makes it possible to obtain maximum information about the patient’s condition. Ultrasound is an absolutely safe and painless method that can be used as often as necessary to monitor health, Maxim Maskin explained.

See also

If you want to take pictures

CT, MRI and radiography, unlike ultrasound, are static diagnostic methods, that is, the doctor takes an image of an organ or a series of images of individual areas – the so-called sections. With radiography, this is more often one picture or two or three – in a direct, lateral or oblique projection, with CT and MRI – several hundred. There is also, for example, an X-ray examination with the introduction of contrast agents, when the diagnostician takes a series of images. As a result, it seems that it is possible to study the work of the organ in dynamics.

It’s radiation, but don’t worry

CT (computed tomography), like the familiar X-ray, is an examination using ionizing radiation. If a patient is prescribed a regular X-ray even several times in a row, there is no need to worry and refuse. Modern x-ray tubes give minimal radiation, so you need to take pictures as many times as the doctor recommends. But computed tomography (CT) should not be done more often 3-4 times a year , because the ionizing radiation in this study is quite high – comparable to 20-30 conventional x-rays.

Read also

A safe alternative – MRI

Another completely safe type of examination is MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). This method is based on the work of a magnetic field, and you and I already live in a magnetic field, it’s just that it is a little stronger inside the apparatus. However, there are some limitations to the study. For example, if a person has a pacemaker installed, an MRI cannot be done, otherwise catastrophic consequences cannot be avoided.

People with modern non-magnetic dental implants or joint prostheses have no contraindications for MRI. But if the prostheses are old, there is a risk that classic metal was used in them. Therefore, before the examination, a person is always asked when the prosthesis was installed, or they are asked to show the so-called implant passport – a document that always indicates whether an MRI can be done or not.

Each MRI room also has a metal detector like those used at airports or customs. If the device detects metal when testing a patient, the test is rejected . Otherwise, MRI, like ultrasound, can be done as many times as you like.

Flexible tube with light bulb

Endoscopy – inspection of abdominal organs using a flexible tube with a camera at the end. This is a method that is prescribed only according to indications. A competent doctor knows how to use an endoscope well, so the procedure is normally unpleasant, but not dangerous. However, do not forget about the possible individual reaction – such a study has slightly more risks than MRI, ultrasound, CT. The most uncomfortable endoscopy is colonoscopy, so it is is performed under general or local anesthesia. It’s not exactly anesthesia, just deep sleep so that the patient is not in pain.

In some serious illnesses, such as the risk of gastrointestinal bleeding, the patient’s condition must be constantly monitored, so in the hospital, endoscopy can be performed up to 3-4 times a day. Such a procedure does not cause any harm to health, because the doctor weighs the risks and benefits when prescribing an examination.

See also

Substitution not always possible

Fearing discomfort due to endoscopy, patients often request an ultrasound instead, but these are not interchangeable. Modern CT machines have a mode that can conditionally be considered a replacement for colonoscopy, it is called “virtual colonography”.

During the study, a 3D model of the large intestine lumen is built using a special program and preparation. However, if the doctor suspects some kind of pathology, it will still be necessary to do a classic colonoscopy.

Text author: Alena Paretskaya

MRI or CT of the intestine – which is better?

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In this case, you may be assigned such methods of hardware
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What are the features of these methods of examination and which of them
more effective – we tell in this article!

Diagnosis of intestinal pathologies

The main methods for diagnosing diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are:

• Instrumental diagnostics:
  • Endoscopy of the stomach and intestines
  • Colonoscopy
• Hardware diagnostics:
  • KT
  • MRI
• Laboratory tests:
  • Blood test
  • Fecal analysis and others

Most common laboratory tests for diagnosis
not enough. And then doctors often use instrumental
diagnostic methods are effective procedures that allow not only
detect pathologies, but also carry out therapy, remove small
neoplasms and foreign objects. However, instrumental methods
are inextricably linked to the discomfort or pain of the patient, and sometimes his
cannot be carried out due to special contraindications.

In this case, one cannot do without hardware diagnostic methods – CT
and MRI. Which one is better for the task? This question can
only the doctor can answer, but the patient will also not be superfluous
get information about these surveys.

Intestinal CT

• Intestinal CT can detect the following pathologies:
• Ulcers and polyps
• Perforation of the stomach and intestines
• Acute intestinal obstruction
• Condition of the sphincters

If these diseases are suspected, the most commonly prescribed
computed tomography of the intestine. However, it should be remembered that CT
contraindicated in pregnant women due to harmful radiation, on
which is based on the principle of computed tomography.

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Intestinal MRI

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• Inflammation in the pancreas

Sometimes MRI is prescribed as an auxiliary method to computer
tomography, if it was not possible to accurately diagnose. However, remember
that despite the safety and harmlessness of magnetic tomography, this
examination has its contraindications.

If you have any questions,
ask our specialist!

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