CHICAGO — Surgeons in the Veterans Affairs (VA) medical system did a poorer job at detecting adenomas during routine colonoscopies compared with gastroenterologists, a review of VA data suggested.
With results analyzed from nearly 670,000 colonoscopies performed in the VA system, adenoma detection rates were 53% for gastroenterologists versus 41% for surgeons, according to Andrew Gawron, MD, PhD, of the University of Utah and the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.
This gap was apparent irrespective of patient sex or age, and whether the procedures were for routine screening or for follow-up of positive fecal tests results, Gawron told attendees at the annual Digestive Disease Week conference here.
He pointed out that colonoscopy training protocols vary dramatically between board-certified gastroenterologists and surgeons.