Part 3: The True Value of 'Barium Examinations' - Protecting Your Own Health - Practical Guide
This is the practical guide to barium examinations.
Barium examinations are often performed at the end of a health checkup. If it is your first time, you might feel nervous in front of the examination room, and if you have it every year, you might feel depressed thinking, 'I'm back here again.'
The cooperation of the person being examined is the most important part of a barium examination. The staff performing the imaging are also thinking about whether you will cooperate or if it will be easy to take pictures based on your previous results.
1. Just before the examination: Drinking the effervescent agent (powdered medicine)
This is the first hurdle. You drink a carbonated powder with a small amount of water to inflate your stomach.
As shown in the diagram above, a barium examination takes pictures of the wrinkles on the stomach wall by coating the inflated stomach wall with barium.
• The biggest mission: 'Resist the urge to burp.'
• Tips: The effervescent agent generates gas as soon as it mixes with water (liquid). Please swallow it immediately after putting it in the back of your throat. Do not swish it around in your mouth under any circumstances. After that, tuck your chin and imagine closing the back of your throat. It helps a little if you try to swallow your saliva. If you do burp, you will be asked to drink more because there won't be enough inflation...
2. Drinking the barium
You will be given a cup (about 150–200ml) of barium. It's heavy, so it feels like a large amount...
• Taste and texture: Recently, efforts have been made to improve it with flavors like strawberry or banana, but it has a unique, heavy, chalky texture.
• How to drink: Instead of drinking it all at once, you will drink it in several portions according to the technician's instructions. We also observe the flow through the esophagus, so we have you drink it in portions.
3. Imaging: Acrobatic movements
This is where the real work begins. You will get on a large machine platform and move according to the technician's microphone instructions.
• Purpose: The examination doesn't end when you drink the barium; that's just the beginning. You are asked to move to spread the barium evenly over the entire wall of your stomach. Since the barium won't stay in your stomach forever, the examination must be completed before it flows into your intestines.
• Examples of movements
'Please turn around twice to the right' → First, we have you rotate to coat the entire stomach with barium.
'The platform will tilt significantly, please hold on to the handrails tightly' → When we want to move the barium to the upper part of the stomach and take pictures of the lower part, we tilt the platform and lower your head.
'I am going to press firmly on your stomach' → We can tell the firmness of the stomach by how it collapses.
• Advice: To avoid getting dizzy, the trick is to listen to the instructions and move calmly. You will be asked to hold your breath when taking pictures, so please do that properly as well.
4. End of examination: Excretion of barium (Important!)
Once the examination is over, the priority above all else is to get the barium out of your body as quickly as possible.
• Taking laxatives: You will be given a laxative immediately after the examination. Take it on the spot or at the designated time. Some facilities may also include a laxative in the barium itself.
• Hydration: Please drink plenty of water (at least several cups). If barium hardens inside the body, it can cause constipation, and in the worst case, medical treatment may be required.
• Checking your stool: It is a success if you pass 'white stool' within a few hours to the next day.
'Thank you for your hard work during the barium examination.'
I have written this in three parts, and next time, I will summarize the future and significance of barium examinations.