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May 20, 2013
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Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (cont.)

Medical Author:
Luigi Santacroce, MD
Coauthor:
Tommaso Losacco, MD
Medical Editor:
Scott H Plantz, MD, FAAEM
Medical Editor:
Francisco Talavera, PharmD, PhD
Medical Editor:
Ron Fuerst, MD

Risks

  • Upper GI endoscopy (EGD): Although rare, bleeding and puncture of your esophagus or stomach walls are possible during EGD. Other complications include the following:

    • Severe irregular heartbeat

    • Pulmonary aspiration - When material, either particulate (food, foreign body) or fluid (gastric contents, blood, or saliva), enters from your throat into your windpipe

    • Infections and fever that come and go

    • Respiratory depression, a decrease in the rate or depth of breathing, in people with severe lung diseases or liver cirrhosis

    • Reaction of the vagus nerve system to the sedatives
  • Lower GI endoscopy (colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, enteroscopy): Although uncommon (less than 1.5% of cases), possible complications of colonoscopy and sigmoidoscopy include the following:

    • Local pain

    • Dehydration (due to excess of laxatives and enemas for bowel preparation)

    • Cardiac arrhythmias

    • Bleeding and infection

    • Hole in your colon

    • Explosion of combustible gases in your colon (certain gases are produced within the bowel) during removal of polyps

    • Respiratory depression usually due to oversedation in people with chronic lung disease

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