Abstract
A 50-year-old woman with discomfort in the epigastrium visited our hospital and underwent gastrointestinal endoscopy. Soon after the examination the patient was noticed her unnatural attitude; i, e. she was confused as to time and place, and she asked repeatedly "What time is it?" to a doctor. There was no past history of epileptic seizure and cerebrovascular disorder. Neurological examinations revealed no abnormality other than deficit of short term memory. Namely she could correctly answer routine questions about her family and past history, but she could not recall the contents told to her a few minutes ago. She had completely forgotten the endoscopic examination as well as other happenings for 6 hours from the onset of examination. Long term memory was not disturbed. She was admitted. On next day's morning, her memory storing had completely recovered, but she could not recall what happened during the episode, MRI-CT of the brain, taken on the day of admission, showed no abnormality. An EEG, SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography), and brain CT on the next day of admission were also nomal. The etiology of transient global amnesia is still unknown remains obscure, but most authors attribute transient global amnesia to a transient ischemic atack or epilepsy. Transient global amnesia may also be related to emotional, physical stress or painful stemulation. Examina tion of gastrointestinal endoscopy is stressfull for patients. Actually, after endoscopic examination aute gastric mucosal lesion may be induced. Although transient global amnesia is a rare hazard of gastrointestinal endoscopy, we should recognize it.
