Endoscopic Ultrasound?

[annak87]

Hello..hope everyone is having a gorgeous, sunny day like we are here in western PA. Just wondering if anyone here has had an endoscopic ultrasound? I'm still having problems with a perianal fistula/abscess site and both my gastroenterologist and surgeon think an endoscopic ultrasound would be beneficial just to double check everything in there. It sounds basically just like an ultrasound probe inserted into the rectum to look around. I'm pretty sure my GI mentioned that I would be sedated for this. So, anyone had one before? Is it really that straightforward? Were you sedated? Was it helpful in showing anything new not seen on an mri or ct scan?

Thanks!

 

[annak87]

Bump

Anyone?

 

[deedee]

I've had 2! I was under propofol anesthesia for both of them, so I don't remember anything, but basically, like you said, they just insert an endoscope (like what they use for a colonoscopy) with an ultrasound probe on top of it into your rectum. It's good for seeing fistulas and abscesses. I believe they're more accurate than MRI/CT, but I'm not sure. I just know that my dr. wanted to use that rather than a scan to confirm that my abscess was gone.

Both of mine went fine, no issues, and they were very helpful for gaining information for my diagnosis.

The only downside was the "prep" I had to do beforehand. For the first one, it was an emergency scan, like they just decided the night before that I was going to have it, so all I had to do was an enema a few hours beforehand (but they did a flex sig too so I don't know if I'd have had to do that if it was only the ultrasound.) For the second one, which was planned, I had to do a clear liquid diet the day before (no colonoscopy prep though), and 2 Fleet enemas the morning of.

Good luck!