Sex, age, location affect colonoscopy failures

NEW YORK July, 4 (Reuters) If you're not eager to undergo a repeat colonoscopy because the procedure could not be completed, choose a specialized medical center to have it done.

Unfortunately, other factors that make an incomplete colonoscopy more likely -- being a woman and being elderly -- can't be changed so readily.

That all stems from a study, reported in the medical journal Gastroenterology, that links female sex, older age, and having the procedure in a private office to the likelihood of colonoscopy not being completed. That is to say, the full length of the colon to the point where it joins the small intestine could not be examined.

Dr Hemant A Shah and colleagues from University of Toronto found that out of more than 331,000 colonoscopies, 13.1 percent were incomplete.

Apart from older age and being female, a history of prior abdominal or pelvic surgery was associated with incomplete colonoscopy.

Patients who underwent colonoscopy in a private office were more than 3 times as likely to have an incomplete procedure as those having their procedure in an academic hospital.

''Our findings have important implications for endoscopists and patients,'' the authors conclude.

''If a patient does not know the volume of procedures performed by his/her physician, then s/he should request a gastroenterologist,'' the researchers write, because gastroenterologists in general have a smaller percentage of incomplete colonoscopies.

REUTERS RSA RN0847