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Since Medicare began covering screening colonoscopy in 2001, use of the procedure in older beneficiaries has risen annually. To assess the incidence of colonoscopy-related adverse events in an older population, investigators studied a representative 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries (53,000 patients; age range, 66–95) who underwent outpatient colonoscopy during a 4-year period.
Thirty-day risk for perforation or gastrointestinal bleeding was significantly higher among colonoscopy patients than among age-matched Medicare controls who did not undergo colonoscopy (6.9 vs. 1.8 events per 1000 patients). Risk also was significantly higher among those who underwent diagnostic colonoscopies or polypectomies than among those who underwent screenin…