Diagnostic Yield of Colonoscopy

Background: Colonoscopy is the gold standard for diagnosis and screening of colorectal cancer. There is an increasing utilization of this gastroenterology service in recent years. Aim: To study the diagnostic yield of colonoscopy in a metropolitan city of Nigeria. Patients and method: A prospective study of all consecutive patients undergoing colonoscopy in a referral endoscopy facility in Port Harcourt metropolis of Nigeria between March 2014 and September 2017. Data collated included: age, sex, location/type of lesion found by colonoscopy and pathologic diagnosis. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS (Chicago, IL USA) version 20. Results: A total of 212 colonoscopies were performed in 210 patients. The age range was from 4 to 86 years; mean age of 53.5 ± 13.9 years. There were 148 males and 64 females; M: F ratio of 2.3:1. A total of 176 (83.0%) procedures had a positive diagnostic yield and the site distribution of pathologies included: anus/anal canal 128 (41.3%); recto-sigmoid 76 (24.6%); transverse colon 44 (14.4%). Haemorrhoids 112 (54.4%); diverticular disease 27 (13.1%) and polyps were frequent findings with multiple pathologies seen in 74 (34.7%) cases. Conclusion: Colonoscopy has a high diagnostic yield in middle-aged population with a high rate of multiple pathologies seen. Diverticular disease is not uncommon among the studied population as traditionally reported.