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The Kaiser Permanente Group previously reported that the incidence of perforation with flexible sigmoidoscopy (their main tool for colorectal cancer screening) was only 1 in 50,000 (Journal Watch Gastroenterology Jan 14 2003). Now, they describe complication rates for colonoscopy, using data from 16,318 procedures performed from 1994 through mid-2002. Almost none of these exams (<1%) were performed as screening procedures.
The 30-day rate of serious complications was 0.8 per 1000 for colonoscopies that did not involve biopsy or polypectomy and 7.0 per 1000 for those that did. Polyp-removal methods could not be distinguished in the database. Perforations occurred in 0.6 per 1000 examinations without biopsy or polypectomy and in 1.1 per 1000 w…