Patient Satisfaction and Understanding of Moderate Sedation During Endoscopy

Millions of endoscopic procedures are performed in the US every year and the use of procedural sedation analgesia (PSA) is increasing with more procedures being performed outside the operating theater and gaining popularity due to reduced costs. Patients having endoscopic procedures usually expect that they would be deeply sedated during the procedure despite verbal counseling during pre-procedure clinic visits and are often dissatisfied with procedural awareness and discomfort. In order to better educate patients, written supplementary reading material was provided to the patients, which stated a clear goal of comfort during the procedure rather than deep sedation. The results showed that the written supplementary material did not improve the patient's understanding or remembrance of being counseled about moderate sedation. We emphasize that there is no substitute for a physician's repetitive verbal counseling.