Sedation practices for gastrointestinal endoscopy in Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Gastroscopy and colonoscopy are standard practice for diagnosing upper gastrointestinal and colonic diseases. Sedation improves tolerance of the endoscopic procedures, but may be responsible for about 50% of the complication rate of the examination. Data from countries of the five continents regarding the rate of using sedation for gastrointestinal endoscopy are rare. We performed a literature search (PubMed) to identify published national or international studies and summarize data on the rate of using sedation for diagnostic gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures in countries of Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Australia. In continents where data were not available, we used mailed questionnaires to endoscopy centers in countries of these continents. Our data indicate that the use of sedation for diagnostic gastrointestinal endoscopy is high in North America and Australia, but varies considerably among countries in Europe, Asia and Africa.