Hemoccult screening in selected patients. The hernia patient older than age fifty years

Two hundred and forty patients, asymptomatic relative to gastrointestinal disease, who applied for elective hernia repair, were tested as outpatients for occult blood in the stool. Thirty-eight patients had one or more positive specimens. Significant pathologic characteristics were identified by lower gastrointestinal evaluation in 23 of these patients. One patient had an adenocarcinoma (Dukes' Stage B). Eight patients had polyps of various types, 11 patients had colonic diverticula, and three patients had anorectal disease. Patient compliance was excellent and the cost-benefit ratio appeared to be acceptable.