Colonoscopy Needs Repeating If Conducted By Non-gastroenterologists.

According to a recent report, older individuals who undergo colonoscopy procedures carried out by family doctors, internists or general surgeons are more likely to have a need to repeat the procedure within one year. Meanwhile, individuals who undergo colonoscopy carried out by gastroenterologists do not usually need to repeat the procedure. The report is highlighted in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Colonoscopy procedures and chances of repeating.

The report used Medicare data for about 300,000 colonoscopy procedures. Data showed that nearly 5% of patients repeated colonoscopy procedures within a year. Data also noted that 6.4% of 7,700 colonoscopy procedures carried out by family doctors were requiring other follow procedures within the year. The percentages for general surgeons and internists were 5.6% and 5.3% respectively. On the other hand, in 240,000 colonoscopy procedures carried out by gastroenterologists, only 4.6% required another procedure within the year. After further considerations of other factors such as the ages of patients, medical conditions, and income, researchers noted that when a colonoscopy procedure is conducted by a family doctor, it is accompanied with 39% more chances of a need to repeat the procedure against only one chance for a procedure managed by a gastroenterologist......