"Drop in" gastroscopy outpatient clinic - experience after 9 months

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Logistics handling referrals for gastroscopy may be more time consuming than the examination itself. For the patient, "drop in" gastroscopy may reduce uncertainty, inadequate therapy and time off work.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>After an 8-9 month run-in period we asked patients, hospital staff and GPs to fill in a questionnaire to evaluate their experience with "drop in" gastroscopy and gastroscopy by appointment, respectively. The diagnostic gain was evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>112 patients had "drop in" gastroscopy and 101 gastroscopy by appointment. The number of "drop in" patients varied between 3 and 12 per day (mean 6.5). Mean time from first GP consultation to gastroscopy was 3.6 weeks in the "drop in" group and 14 weeks in the appointment group. The half-yearly number of outpatient gastroscopies increased from 696 before introducing "drop in" to 1022 after (47% increase) and the proportion of examinations with pathological findings increased from 42% to 58%. Patients and GPs expressed great satisfaction with "drop in". Hospital staff also acclaimed although it caused more unpredictable working days with no additional staff.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>"Drop in" gastroscopy was introduced without increase in staff. The observed increase in gastroscopies was paralleled by a similar increase in pathological findings without any apparent disadvantages for other groups of patients. This should legitimise "drop in" outpatient gastroscopies, but it requires meticulous observation of possible unwanted effects when implemented.</p

Detection of upper gastrointestinal cancer in patients taking antisecretory therapy prior to gastroscopy

BACKGROUND—The incidence of early gastric cancer has not increased despite better access to endoscopic facilities for general practitioners. Many patients receive a course of symptomatic treatment while waiting for gastroscopy.
AIMS—To ascertain the effect of antisecretory therapy on the diagnostic process and findings for patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer.
METHODS—A consecutive case study survey of the primary care records of 133 patients who had died of upper gastrointestinal cancer during 1995-97 in the South Tees health district in the north-east of England (population 300 000).
RESULTS—From the 133 patients identified, 116 had died from adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus (31) or stomach (85). Failure to reach the diagnosis of cancer at the index gastroscopy was associated with prior acid suppression therapy. Only one of 54 patients on no treatment or antacids alone was erroneously diagnosed as suffering from benign disease, whereas 22 of 62 patients treated with acid suppression were diagnosed as suffering from benign disease but at varying times later turned out to have adenocarcinoma. Twenty of 45 patients taking a proton pump inhibitor had a delayed diagnosis compared with two of 17 taking an H(2) receptor antagonist. The commonest lesion seen at index gastroscopy in those in whom the diagnosis was initially missed was gastric ulcer. Healing occurred in six patients taking a proton pump inhibitor, despite their later diagnosis of malignancy.
CONCLUSIONS—The treatment of dyspeptic symptoms with acid suppression prior to gastroscopy masks and delays the detection of gastric and oesophageal adenocarcinoma on endoscopy in one third of patients.


Keywords: diagnosis; upper gastrointestinal cancer; gastric adenocarcinoma; oesophageal adenocarcinoma; gastroscopy; antisecretory therap