C
an you tell just by looking at a patient that the
colonoscopy you're about to start isn't going to be run-
of-the-mill? True, you know that patients who are par-
ticularly thin, particularly heavy and particularly old
are likely to be more challenging, but does that mean
every patient who's none of the above is going to be a cinch?
"Anybody can be turn out to be difficult," says Samir Parikh, MD,
FACS, FASCRS, of the Riddle Surgical Center in Media, Pa.
"Sometimes you see the most average-looking person, someone who
should have the easiest colonoscopy in the world, and it turns out
they have a redundant colon."
Dr. Parikh, who estimates that he's performed close to 15,000
colonoscopies, breaks the population down this way: 50% to 60% are
easy, 30% are in the middle, and the remaining 10% or more are tough
8 8
O U T P A T 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 | M A Y 2 0 1 5
Difficult Colonoscopies?
Are You Ready for
The right tools
and techniques can
get you through
unexpected
problems.
Jim Burger
Associate Editor
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
z NO SURE THING The patient you'd
expect to be as routine as they come
may turn out to be just the opposite.
