Should a Non-Specialist Do Your Colonoscopy Screening?

There are lots of good reasons to get a colonoscopy - to screen for colon cancer. Colon cancer is a disease thats preventable if suspicious polyps are picked up early and removed - before they have the chance to develop into cancer. Theres little doubt that screening colonoscopies saves lives. Thats why doctors recommend that a person at average risk for colon cancer get a colonoscopy screening starting at age fifty - and continue up through age seventy-five. People at higher risk for colon cancer may need to get a screening colonoscopy even earlier. When the time comes to get a screening colonoscopy, should you let a surgeon do it, or a specialist?

Whos the Best Doctor to Do a Screening Colonoscopy?

Colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer were once the exclusive domain of gastroenterologists. Now, surgeons can undergo special training to learn to do them on patients - but choosing a surgeon or other non-specialist to do this procedure may not be a smart idea. A recent study sheds a disturbing light on screening colonoscopies performed by non-specialists.

Researchers looked at the outcomes of over 110,000 individuals who had colonoscopies to screen for colon cancer - and made note of how many of these individuals went on to develop colon cancer over a fifteen year period. The results? More people who had their screening colonoscopy performed by a non-gastroenterologist went on to develop colon cancer, than those who had their procedure carried out by a trained gastroenterologist.

A Colonoscopy Screening is Best Done By a Gastroenterologist

This isnt the first study to show these results. Two previous studies showed that more non-gastroenterologists fail to diagnose colon cancers on colonoscopy, than gastroenterologists who specialize in diagnosing and treating diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and colon.

The Best Doctor to Do a Colonoscopy Screening: The Bottom Line?

Gastroenterologists undergo extensive training to learn colonoscopy screening, and theyre better qualified to screen for colon cancer. General surgeons who do these procedures also have training, but they dont have the opportunity to do as many colonoscopies as a gastroenterologist does. Thus, they may not have the same level of expertise. When it comes time to get a screening colonoscopy, ask for a gastroenterologist.

References:

Journal Watch. Volume 30, Nos. 9 & 10. May 2010. page 74.