When you get a scope (the one that goes thru the nose to the throat) what exactly does the scope show?

Do they see both the airways and esophagus?

Thanks
LisaB

The scope has a camera at the end. They can move it around in all direction to get a good view. They see the airways and at least the top of the esophagus. They may be able to go deaper in but I'm not sure. Ask to be able to see the screen and for some xylocane.

Different scopes/different instruments, I think....I had a GED (gastroesophogoduodenoscopy)(!!) when I had my routine colonoscopy. That way I had everything looked at in my digestive system, from the mouth down. I wanted to have the bronchoscopy done at the same time, but they said that it would have been a different doctor and a different procedure and too much going on for one morning.

At my surgery, they were to have done both an esophogoscopy and a bronchoscopy. They said later that they did the bronch, but that they were not able to do the esoph. bec. my throat was small and they didn't have a flexible scope (why did they not obtain one??? I don't know.)

So...different things. The larynx/pharynx can be viewed in the ENT's office by passing a small camera and light through the nostril after spraying some numbing med. Not a big deal at all.

A true bronchoscopy is a more involved procedure, but I have read that they can be done in the office also, under certain circumstances,-with an instrument similar to the one used by the ENT, but they are usually done in a day-surgery setting, under some anaesthesia.