Health
Doctors may be overdoing colonoscopies
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Sept. 6, 2004
About a quarter of gastroenterologists and more than half of general surgeons recommend surveillance colonoscopies in excess of guidelines for the procedure, according to a study published in the Aug. 17 Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers surveyed more than 600 physicians who perform screening colonoscopies. Twenty-four percent of gastroenterologists and 54% of surgeons said they recommended surveillance colonoscopies after a hyperplastic polyp. More than half of both groups also recommended the procedure more frequently than every three years after the discovery and removal of a small adenoma.
Guidelines currently do not recommend follow-up after a hyperplastic polyp but do recommend a surveillance colonoscopy every three to five years after a small adenoma.
The paper's authors suggested that overuse of the procedure is a burden on the health care system and puts patients at unnecessary risk. "We believe colonoscopy can be a life-saving procedure, but it shouldn't be done more often than necessary," said Pauline Mysliwiec, MD, MPH, lead author and assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of California, Davis.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/09/06/hlbf0906.htm.
