Impact Of Noise On Tolerance And Quality Of Upper Digestive Endoscopy

Aims At our department, upper digestive endoscopy is performed, mostly, without sedatives administration. So, the patient’s collaboration is necessary. The aim of this work was to assess the impact of noise during upper endoscopy performing on tolerance and quality (examination time) procedure.

Methods Prospective study, between December 2019 and March 2020, included outpatients’ procedures. Uncollaborative patients or procedures with sedatives administration were excluded. The noise in the room and the examination time were measured with a decibel meter and stopwatch, respectively.

Tolerance assessment included: intubation difficultness, gastric insufflation suitability and patient discomfort. After procedure, an inquiry was applied to assess the patient’s opinion regarding noise (using a reference scale) and its impact on collaboration during the exam.

Results Were included 63 patients; 50.8 % female; age 62.32 ± 15.05 years. 47.6 % previous anxiety, in 31.7 % it was the first upper digestive endoscopy and 55.6 % considered the exam more satisfactory than expected. One third did not tolerate the exam (4.8 % difficult intubation; 27 % global discomfort; 22.2 % inadequate gastric insufflation); average time 6:51 ± 3 min. Regarding noise, 47.32 ± 5.83 decibels; 7.9 % rated the exam room as noisy, but none attributed this to the exam’s tolerance.

The noise in the room for non-tolerant patients was slightly higher than in the room for tolerant patients, despite not being statistically significant (meandB 47.38 vs 47.19, p = 0.904). Patients do not have a perception of noise during endoscopy (χ2 = 8,341, p = 0.596).

The noise had a negative impact on the duration of the endoscopy (r = - 0.162, p = 0.205).

Conclusions The tolerance and quality (time dependent) of the upper digestive endoscopy were negatively influenced by the increase in noise, although there was no statistical significance. More studies are needed to better assess the impact of noise on endoscopic quality.

Citation Linhares M, Ramos D, Pereira F et al. eP115 IMPACT OF NOISE ON TOLERANCE AND QUALITY OF UPPER DIGESTIVE ENDOSCOPY. Endoscopy 2021; 53: S134.

Publication History

Article published online:
19 March 2021