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Colorectal Surgeons Achieve High-quality Metrics in Colonoscopy
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Quantitative metrics demonstrate that fellowship-trained colorectal surgeons can competently perform high-quality colonoscopy, according to data presented at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons 2015 Annual Meeting.
“Previous reports of colonoscopy quality measures identified superior results by gastroenterologists. However, these prior studies did not assess the specific abilities and training of colorectal surgeons,” Amir Bastawrous, MD, MBA, from Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, told Healio Gastroenterology. “Colorectal fellowship training requirements match those for gastroenterologists as they apply to colonoscopy. We set out to measure the quality metrics of a group of high volume colorectal trained surgeons.”
Amir Bastawrous
Bastawrous and colleagues reviewed procedural data from 748 charts from the Swedish Colon and Rectal Clinic from November 2013 to June 2014. They assessed polyp, adenoma and sessile serrated adenoma detection rates, as well as quantitative metrics for cecal intubation rate and time, and scope withdrawal time.
Overall polyp detection rate was 55.88%, overall adenoma detection rate was 38.88% and overall sessile serrated adenoma detection rate was 9.54%. These adenoma detection rates were significantly higher than national standards set by the American College of Gastroenterology.
Cecal intubation rate was 99.5% and average cecal intubation time was 8.18 minutes. Average colonoscopy withdrawal time without polypectomy was 8.99 minutes and average colonoscopy withdrawal time with polypectomy was 16.05 minutes.
“We found that this group of surgeons far exceeded the minimum acceptable metrics as defined by the ACG for colonoscopy. Colonoscopy is a skill set, not a specialty,” Bastawrous said, adding that physicians can perform high quality colonoscopy if they are well trained, experienced and meet criteria for quality. – by Adam Leitenberger
Reference:
Charbel JM, et al. Abstract S064. Presented at: Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons Annual Meeting; April 15-18, 2015, Nashville, Tenn.
Disclosure: Bastawrous reports no relevant financial disclosures.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on April 21 to reflect additional information.