[Tolerance and Acceptability of Gastroscopy in Adults in Ivory Coast: 300 Cases]

The purpose of this study was to report the real-life experience of oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD) patients in order to note apprehensions and postoperative feedback. This prospective study involving 300 patients of the Cocody Teaching Hospital, was carried out over a four month period. It included 158 men and 142 women with an average age of 40 years. OGD was performed on outpatients (78%) and hospitalized patients (22%). The feelings of patients before EGD were marked by anxiety (91%) or serenity (9%). 88% of the patients received premedication versus 12% who did not. This premedication was based on midazolam in 69.31% of cases and diazepam in 30.69%. No incident or accident related to the procedure or to the premedication was reported. The tolerance of the patients regarding OGD, as reported by the patients and doctors, was good (78% vs 78% respectively), acceptable (17% vs 16.67%) or bad (5% vs 5.33%). Patients found the examination to be unpleasant (43.34%), painful (30.33%) or painless (26.33%). Doctors reported that patients' attitudes were marked by anxiety (91%) and serenity (9%). Age, sex, previous information on the examination, psychological preparation, the feelings of the patients before the examination and premedication with hypnovel or valium did not influence the tolerance of patients since the differences were not statistically significant (p>0.05). 89.33% of our patients would accept a repeat of the digestive endoscopy versus 10.67% who would not. Almost all the patients (99.33%), would recommend an OGD to another person versus only 0.67% who would not. 83.33% of patients were satisfied with the OGD versus 16.67% who were not.

The OGD remains bearable with 78% of patients presenting a good tolerance despite the important number of patients (91%) who felt anxious before the examination.