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

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether a gargled articaine solution makes gastroscopy more tolerable for the patient. BACKGROUND: 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. STUDY: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: Preprocedural articaine gargle does not increase patient tolerance or ease upper endoscopy. UNLABELLED: NCT02105090.