Colonoscopy in central Jamaica: results and implications

The aim of this report was to determine the outcome of all patients subjected to colonoscopy at an outpatient medical facility in central Jamaica. A copy of the colonoscopy report of each consecutive patient during the period March 2007 to April 2011 was entered into a database and analysed. One thousand two hundred and fifty patients were identified with a mean age of 60 years and 56.5% were female. The most common indication for colonoscopy was bleeding (28%) but constipation (15%) and screening (11%) were also important. Caecal intubation was achieved in 96% of the group. While 30% of the group had normal findings, 32% had diverticulosis and 23% had haemorrhoids; importantly 10% had carcinomas and 11% had adenomas. Adenomas were detected in 13% of the screened patients. The most important predictor of an abnormal colonoscopy was a history of bleeding. The perforation rate was 0.24% with no perforations occurring in the latter 650 cases.