Initial experience with a variable width and extreme tip angulation colonoscope

Excerpt

Screening and surveillance colonoscopies can be affected by colon looping, angulations, diverticulosis, previous surgeries, body mass index, ability to sedate or type of sedation, bowel preparation, and female sex. Incomplete colonoscopies can be economically and emotionally costly and may result in decreased compliance with screening for colon neoplasia [1]. Instruments that improve the cecal intubation and adenoma detection rate, reduce the number of incomplete colonoscopies and improve patient satisfaction are desirable. Studies have shown that pediatric as well as variable stiffness colonoscopes achieve cecal intubation rates similar to standard colonoscopes, but possibly with less pain and with faster cecal intubation times [2, 3]. More recently, ultrathin colonoscopes have been reported to be better at negotiating acute luminal angulations, and patients may require less sedation than when standard colonoscopes are used. However, looping, difficulty removing larger polyps, and a higher ileal intubation failure rate have been reported [1, 4, 5]. We are, to the best of our knowledge, the first to report the ease of use and initial impressions with a newly available variable width colonoscope with extreme tip angulation capability. …