When you schedule an important screening procedure like a colonoscopy, you probably have two goals: a complication-free procedure and a clean bill of health. By now, you are probably aware that colon cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and the best way to keep colon cancer at bay is to have regular colonoscopies beginning at the age of 50 (unless you are African American or have a family or personal history of polyps or colon cancer.
Because colonoscopies are an invasive procedure, there is always a small risk that there might be a complication. Some post-colonoscopy complications include:
- intestinal bleeding
- perforation of the intestinal wall
- polypectomy bleeding (bleeding after removal of a polyp)
- mortality
According to a recent study that included 21 population-based studies that evaluated post-colonoscopy complications within 30 days of almost 2 million colonoscopies performed over several continents, complications are either remaining low or have decreased over the past 15 years. The overall post-colonoscopy bleeding rate was 2.6 per 1,000 colonoscopies, the perforation rate was 0.5 per 1,000 colonoscopies, the polypectomy bleeding rate was 9.8 per 1,000 colonoscopies, and the mortality rate was 2.9 per 100,000 colonoscopies.
“Despite increasing numbers and technical difficulty of colonoscopy over the past years, the post-colonoscopy complication rate remained relatively stable or even declined, likely reflecting positive changes and improvements in colonoscopy practice,” the researchers concluded.
Before this study, there was no other systematic review with meta-analysis of data to help make determinations about post-colonoscopy complication rates. Whether low complication rates are due to improved colonoscopy training or technological advancements, this is remarkable news in the field of gastroenterology. These results underscore the importance of colonoscopies as being a safe procedure for colon cancer diagnosis, screening, surveillance, and therapeutic treatment. The researchers are requesting global definitions of post-colonoscopy complications to assist in future studies (Source: Healio).