Authors Marianna Spinou, Eleni Kyvelou, Giorgos Aggelopoulos, Dimitrios I. Ziogas, Antonia Panagaki, Magdalini Manti, Apostolis Papaefthymiou, Paraskevas Gkolfakis, Antonio Facciorusso, Nikoletta Mathou, Athanasios Giannakopoulos, Konstantinos Triantafyllou, Konstantina D. Paraskeva, Antonios Vezakis, Ioannis Vlachogiannakos, George Karamanolis, Georgios Tziatzios.

Sedation and analgesia during gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy increase procedural quality, contributing at the same time to greater patient satisfaction and willingness to undergo the procedure. Although sedation use has been optimized by the advent of efficacious and safe medications, data regarding the minimal criteria for discharge after outpatient endoscopy remain scant. Moreover, the time of discharge after endoscopy can be highly variable, depending not only on the type of procedure and anesthesia administered, but also on postprocedural complications and the patient’s comorbidities. To make things even more conflicting, there is neither consensus among various endoscopic societies, concerning the most appropriate discharge strategy, nor a universally established tool that could be incorporated into everyday clinical practice, allowing patients’ safe discharge as well as ability to drive. In this context, we conducted a systematic review, aiming to summarize the evidence regarding the available discharge scoring systems after outpatient GI endoscopy with sedation and analgesia administration.

Keywords Gastrointestinal endoscopy, sedation, analgesia, discharge

Ann Gastroenterol 2024; 37 (5): 499-508