TOO MUCH COLONOSCOPY?
A MEDICARE STUDY SUGGESTS COLONOSCOPY IS REPEATED TOO SOON, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS
Medicare data have shown that many people who’ve had routine screening colonoscopy to rule out colon cancer have a repeat procedure far sooner than guidelines indicate. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, comments.
NELSON: There is no question at all that colonoscopy at age 50 saves lives. Once a screening colonoscopy is undertaken and there are no abnormal findings, the screening guidelines suggest maybe another screening colonoscopy might be attempted in a decade or so, but if you look at the utilization of colonoscopy, at least half of everybody who had a negative colonoscopy had another one within three to five years, and that is overkill at a time when we’re trying to control health care costs, that is a procedure that may not necessarily been needed at all. :35
So if your colonoscopy is normal and you have no symptoms of colon cancer, question anyone who tells you you need another a few years later. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey
