Hastalar sedasyonsuz üst gastrointestinal endoskopiyi gerçekte olduğundan daha zor olarak zannetmektedir

Background and Aims: Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (gastroscopy) is widely used as a diagnostic method in gastroenterology. When we offer sedation-free gastroscopy to patients, it is frequently refused. Our aim was to compare the scores given by the patients regarding the difficulty of gastroscopy, as determined before and after the procedure using a visual scale. Furthermore, we compared the scores of the patients with those of the physicians. Materials and Methods: Totally, 175 patients (87 female, 88 male) were included. The difficulty ranged from 0 (overly easy) to 10 (unbearably difficult). The patients' age, gender and educational level were recorded. Gastroscopy history, difficulty score before and after the procedure, the physicians' scores, and whether or not patients offer-sedation-free gastroscopy to any other patient were determined, and the data were recorded. Results: The mean age of the patients was 44±13 years. It was the first procedure for 67% (117) of the patients. The educational level was none in 7.4% (11), primary/secondary school in 46.3% (81), high school in 28% (49), and university in 18.3% (32) of patients. The difficulty score before gastroscopy (5.9±2.6) was significantly higher than after gastroscopy (4.3±2.8) (p