TUESDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) -- In patients with prior adenoma, looking back at findings from the last two colonoscopies, rather than just the most recent colonoscopy, can help identify patients at low risk for adenoma recurrence who require less frequent surveillance, according to a study in the July 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Douglas J. Robertson, M.D., of the Veterans Affairs Outcomes Group in White River Junction, Vt., and colleagues followed 564 patients who had had one or more adenomas discovered in an initial colonoscopy. The patients went on to have second and third surveillance colonoscopies at approximately three-year intervals. The investigators analyzed the findings from the series of three colonoscopies to evaluate the risk of clinically significant adenoma recurrence.
The investigators calculated that when the initial colonoscopy found a low-risk adenoma, and the second colonoscopy found no adenoma, the prevalence of high-risk adenoma on the third colonoscopy was 4.9 percent. When the initial colonoscopy found a high-risk adenoma and the second colonoscopy found no adenoma, the prevalence of high-risk adenoma on the third colonoscopy was 12.3 percent.
"Among patients who had only one or two small tubular adenomas at a baseline examination and then no adenomas on their first surveillance colonoscopy, the probability of high-risk findings on the next surveillance examination was similar to that for patients with a negative screening examination; thus, a 10-year follow-up colonoscopy schedule may be appropriate," the authors conclude.
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