Hi tommyt4

I think entonox is the ‘gas and air’ that’s sometimes offered to patients undergoing colonoscopies. It is used to give pain relief.

Its common to be offered a choice between gas and air or sedation. Sedation has a slightly longer recovery time and requires you to be accompanied and I think also requires you to have someone with you for 12-24 hours after you go home. 

I think sedation may not be appropriate for some people if they have low blood pressure, or possibly other issues.  

CT scans can be an alternative to a colonoscopy, the main disadvantage is that they are imaging only - if they do find anything then in order to get biopsies of what was found, a colonoscopy will be required. 

I hope your procedure goes well for you. 

hiya thankyou for your reply.

entonox is the gas and air. i just meant is it normal for a hospital not to provide this? when i saw the consultant there he said it is used but when the prep and information arrived there was a note saying at present it is not availab.e

Hi again,

im afraid I don’t know how normal it is for entonox to be not supplied.  I have had one colonoscopy and it wasn’t mentioned at all when I had that - I was just asked if I wanted sedation or not. I have another colonoscopy taking place this week and it hadn’t been mentioned in the pamphlets I’ve been sent.  Having said that I have seen plenty of posts about colonoscopy procedures where people have been offered it.

sorry that that is not very helpful for your question!

You will still be offered sedation just if you were going to go without sedation you would be offered gas and air. There could be many reasons for them not being able to offer it on the day you are scheduled. I was sedated for mine. Still was totally aware of everything didn't fall asleep just wasn't allowed to drive that day... Hope it goes well. You could always ring the hospital if you were concernwd