The Lister Hospital
Chelsea Bridge Road, SW1W 8RH London
Digital fluoroscopy
Fluoroscopy is a type of X-ray used to create moving images of internal parts of your body.
What is a fluoroscopy?
A digital fluoroscopy is a type of X-ray carried out by one of our specialist consultants. You might need to have a fluoroscopy if your consultant wants to investigate your gastrointestinal tract or if you're having orthopaedic or urological surgery.
Your specialist will do a fluoroscopy to get real-time moving internal images of your body using an instrument called a fluoroscope. There are lots of different kinds of fluoroscopies you can have and these various procedures can take anywhere between 10 and 45 minutes.
Need to know
A fluoroscopy is painless, so you won't need to have any anaesthetic. You might be asked to drink a contrast material (like barium) so that your consultant radiologist can see your internal organs more clearly during the examination.
Air and barium can also be used together to create a 'double contrast' to provide even greater detail. You can have lots of different types of procedures in the fluoroscopy suite. These can include urological and gynaecological procedures, as well as tests that assess swallowing and joint injections.
Your consultant will explain what kind of fluoroscopy you need to have and how to prepare for it.
You'll be asked to remove any clothing or jewellery that may obscure any images taken. If you do have to undress, you'll be given a gown to wear during the examination.
You can go home straight after having a digital fluoroscopy. Your consultant will contact you within 48 hours to give you the results of this test.
Our Digital fluoroscopy locations
London Bridge Hospital
27 Tooley Street SE1 2PR London
The Princess Grace Hospital
42-52 Nottingham Place W1U 5NY London
The Shard Outpatients
The Shard, 32 St Thomas Street SE1 9BS London