Assessment of the quality of colonoscopy in Romania

We performed a national prospective multicentric study in order to assess the quality of colonoscopies performed in Romania. Between the 1st and 30th of November 2004, we performed a questionnaire-type study with regard to the practice of colonoscopy, addressed to all the centers in Romania known to perform digestive endoscopy. Thirty centers responded to our questionnaire, resulting in a number of 2,559 colonoscopies that were performed in Romania during the month of November (a mean of 85 colonoscopies/center/month). The percentage of cecal intubations performed nationwide was 70.5%, 74.1% in university hospitals, as compared to nonuniversity ones (64.6%) (p=0.000027). Regarding sedation during colonoscopy, in 46% of the cases the colonoscopy was performed without sedation and in 54% of the cases with sedation (or sedo-analgesia).