The development status of digestive endoscopy in China

Objective To find out the status of digestive endoscopy in our country, and to provide evidence-based support for the standardized management of digestive endoscopy. Methods The survey of digestive endoscopy had been carried by the NHFPC and CSDE during 2013. The data had been reported by internet database in 31 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions. The contents of the survey included four aspects: personal information, practicing information, problems encountered in practice, hospital and department information. Results The digestive endoscopic therapy had been carried out in 6 128 medical clinics. And there were 26 203 digestive endoscopists and 14 532 digestive endoscopic nurses served in these medical institutions. There were 28.77 million digestive endoscopic cases which had been carried out in 2012. The proportion of digestive endoscopists in registered physicians was 1.06%. There were only 19.59 digestive endoscopists per million people in our country. Throughout 2012, 199 patients died of digestive endoscopic procedure, 4 359 patients had gastrointestinal bleeding, 914 patients had perforation, and 593 patients had severe acute pancreatitis, 2 151 patients had bleeding, 257 patients had perforation, 4 125 patients had biliary tract infections induced by ERCP. Conclusion The digestive endoscopists and digestive endoscopic equipment are facing shortage and uneven regional distribution. The incidence of complications about endoscopic procedure is relatively high. And the Chinese digestive endoscopy also needs to be regulated. Key words: Digestive endoscopy; Survey