Standards of colonoscopy in tallaght hospital; need for beyond the caecum

Background: In order to define the learning curves and to improve the standards, the performance of the department regarding colonoscopy completion rate was assessed.

Methods: The completion rates were recorded from the computerized record between Oct 2004 and March 2005.

Results: One thousand consecutive colonoscopic procedures were analyzed during the study period. The crude and adjusted caecal intubation rate was 86.2% and 92.8% respectively. The crude and adjusted terminal ileal intubation rate was 44.6% and 47.7% respectively. Results for each group of endoscopists are presented in table 1.

n=1000
	Crude caecal intubationrate % (n)	Adjusted caecal intubation rate %	Crude terminal ileal intubation rate % (n)	Adjusted terminal ileal intubation rate %
GIconsultants	90.4 (n=409)	95.5	52.9 (n=204)	54.4
GITrainees	86 (n=500)	93.7	42.9 (n=261)	47.1
Surgicalconsultants	94.4 (n=17)	94.4	0 (n=11)	0
SurgicalTrainees	62.1 (n=74)	71.6	5.2 (n=19)	5.2

Table 1

Conclusions: In this retrospective study, the overall adjusted caecal intubation rate was adequate as per current practice guidelines. Results observed for surgical trainees were below the expected standards, suggesting that they might benefit from more supervised training. The adjusted terminal ileal intubation rate was below the recommended levels and needed improvement.