I am having surgery on March 20 and my surgeon's office called last Friday to schedule an Esophageal study for me. However, the nurse couldn't really tell me what it was. Did anyone else have to have this done? If so, was it painful? What does it entail? I couldn't really find anything definitive on the Web about it.:thumbdown:

I got this lil tib bit from This Web site

Doctors perform a variety of tests to evaluate these symptoms. Endoscopy, which is not a test of esophageal function, is often used to determine if the lining of the esophagus has any ulcers, tumors, or areas of narrowing (strictures). Many times, however, endoscopy only shows the doctor if there is injury to the esophageal lining, and the procedure gives no information about the cause of the problem.

there are multiple esophageal studies- one of them is an EGD or esophagogastruduodenoscopy where they take a camera (looks like a tube the diameter of a pencil) and look into your esophagus down to the pyloric sphincter. It is uncomfortable but not really painful. Other tests to evaluate the esophagus would be motility studies and a barium swallow, where you swallow contrast and is not painful at all. Good luck and keep us updated!

To add to the list of possible esophageal studies, I work for cardiologists and I had to have an echocardiogram and stress test as preliminaries for banding. The echo I had is a transthoracic echocardiogram, but there is also a transesophageal echocardiogram. It is done in the hospital under sedation, and I don't know a lot about it but I believe a probe is sent down the esophagus as described in one of the other postings. So it is a little more involved but I suppose yields maybe more detailed information. An echo is basically an ultrasound or sonogram, just like what pregnant women have, but the gel and transducer (the gizmo that is moved around in the gel) are moved to the chest. It utilizes sound waves (like sonar) to visualize the chambers and valves in the heart (transthoracic). Not sure how the transesophageal differs aside from the probe, but since most of us have to get some kind of cardiac clearance, this may be what they are referring to.

I am waiting for insurance approval. Hoping to be banded in March.

transesophageal echo (TEE) is to look at the heart- one can get more detailed information by going down the esophagus (closer to the heart) than through the chest wall- (transthoracic echo) (TTE) these are usually used to evaluate how well your heart is pumping (ejection fraction) as well as to look at your valves and heart motion

Awesome...thanks all for the information. I'm hoping that I will find out more on Friday--just found out I am going in for a whole bunch of labwork and an informational "class" all day on Friday--so--maybe I can find out there what this will be like for sure. I appreciate everyone's information.

I'm going tomorrow for an endoscopy. From what I hear, it's not too bad. Hey, I'm good as long as they give me something to relax, which they assure me they will do. I've been having some pretty bad heartburn for over a year now. I finally went to my primary and he put me on something for it. Now that I'm getting ready for the lapband surgery, this doctor wants to check out what's going on. Good luck and keep us posted!