A novel articaine gargle for upper endoscopy in adults: a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled trial

To assess whether a gargled articaine solution makes gastroscopy more tolerable for the patient.

Gastroscopy is an unpleasant experience for most people. A drug that is easy to use, has a fast onset, enables quick ambulation, and causes minimal side-effects is needed to relieve gastroscopy-related procedural discomfort.

This double-blinded randomized, placebo-controlled study included 90 patients who underwent gastroscopy without sedation. The patients were allocated into three different treatment groups to receive 10 ml of either articaine 10 mg/ml, articaine 20 mg/ml, or placebo for gargling and ingestion preprocedurally. Patient tolerability and satisfaction as well as endoscopists' ratings were assessed with questionnaires. Pulse and oxygen saturation were recorded during the procedure.

Articaine gargle did not improve patient tolerability or satisfaction with gastroscopy compared to placebo. There was trend in favor of procedural completion in the articaine 20 mg/ml group, though this did not reach statistical significance. There were no beneficial findings as rated by endoscopists. The trial was terminated before it reached the originally intended sample size.

Preprocedural articaine gargle does not increase patient tolerance or ease upper endoscopy.

NCT02105090.