High-quality Bowel Preparation Is Required for Detection of Sessile Serrated Polyps

The effect of bowel preparation quality has been well-characterized for detection of adenomas but not for detection of sessile serrated adenomas/polyps (SSPs). We performed a prospective study to determine proportions of patients in whom SSPs were detected at different levels of bowel preparation quality, using common validated scoring systems.

Our study enrolled 749 male veterans 50-75 years old undergoing screening or surveillance colonoscopy. Proportions of patients in whom SSP were detected were calculated for each level of preparation quality based on the Aronchick scale (poor = low quality, fair = intermediate quality, and good or excellent = high quality) and the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS; scores of 0-3 for right, transverse, and left colon segments). We compared SSP detection among different levels of preparation quality using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for age, indication, and endoscopist. Our primary hypothesis was that SSP detection would not be significantly lower with intermediate-quality than with high-quality preparations.

SSPs were detected in a significantly smaller proportion of patients with intermediate-quality preparation than high-quality preparation, for the entire colon (4.6% vs 12.0%; odds ratio [OR], 0.37; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15-0.87) and right colon (1.5% vs 7.9%; OR, 0.19; 95% CI, 0.05-0.81). SSPs were detected in smaller proportions of patients with total colon BBPS scores <7 than in patients with BBPS scores of 7-9 (4.7% vs 12.6%; OR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.19-0.67). SSPs were detected in right colons of a smaller percentage of patients with BBPS scores of 2 than scores of 3 (4.7% vs 9.5%; OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.26-0.94).

Any bowel preparation quality below high quality is associated with a significant decrease in the detection of SSPs. Although intermediate-quality preparation and BBPS segment scores of 2 seem to be adequate for detection of adenomas, these levels of preparation quality may not be adequate for detection of SSPs.