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E N D O S C O P Y
PRACTICE ADVISORY
Can Nurses Manipulate Endoscopes?
F
our-member
TAG TEAM As a nurse advances the scope, Dr.
teams perform Lloyd can work the dials with his dominant hand.
colonoscopies
at the South Carolina
Medical Endoscopy
Center in Columbia.
• A physician leads
the screening.
• A nurse advances
the endoscope.
• An anesthetist helps
apply abdominal pressure.
• A documenter labels the pictures taken, keeps track of biopsies and
fills out the computerized report.
"Everyone has their eyes on the screen," says Stephen Lloyd, MD,
PhD, the facility's medical director. "That helps us focus and miss the
minimal number of polyps."
Most gastroenterologists are taught to do the exam without assistance, but Dr. Lloyd finds that a team approach, including having a
nurse advance and manipulate the scope, results in lower perforations, fewer complications and much higher polyp detection rates.
Their cecum intubation rate is over 99%.
Having the nurse advance and manipulate the endoscope lets Dr.
Lloyd use his dominant hand to work the up-down, left-right controls in
order to make precise turns and deflections of the scope's tip. He says
that helps him see more polyps and remove them with improved precision.
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | N O V E M B E R 2013
