Randomized Clinical Trial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 28, 2020; 26(16): 1962-1970
Published online Apr 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i16.1962
Retrograde inspection vs standard forward view for the detection of colorectal adenomas during colonoscopy: A back-to-back randomized clinical trial
Timo Rath, Lukas Pfeifer, Clemens Neufert, Andreas Kremer, Moritz Leppkes, Arthur Hoffman, Markus F Neurath, Steffen Zopf
Timo Rath, Lukas Pfeifer, Clemens Neufert, Andreas Kremer, Moritz Leppkes, Markus F Neurath, Department of Internal Medicine 1, Division of Gastroenterology, Ludwig Demling Endoscopy Center of Excellence, Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen Nuernberg, Erlangen 91054, Germany
Arthur Hoffman, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Klinikum Aschaffenburg, Aschaffenburg 63739, Germany
Steffen Zopf, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Klinikum Fürth, Fürth 90766, Germany
Author contributions: Rath T, Zopf S and Neurath MF were responsible for the study conception and design, data analysis; Hoffman A was involved in data interpretation and manuscript drafting; Rath T, Pfeifer L, Leppkes M, Neufert C, Zopf A, and Kremer A were involved in patient recruitment and performing of the colonoscopies; all authors reviewed and approved the final version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen.
Clinical trial registration statement: The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov under the following ID: NCT04107376.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no potential conflicting interests related to this paper.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Timo Rath, MD, PhD, Full Professor, Department of Internal Medicine 1, Division of Gastroenterology, Ludwig Demling Endoscopy Center of Excellence, Friedrich-Alexander-University, Erlangen Nuernberg, Ulmenweg 18, Erlangen 91054, Germany. timo.rath@uk-erlangen.de
Received: February 3, 2020
Peer-review started: February 3, 2020
First decision: February 27, 2020
Revised: March 26, 2020
Accepted: April 17, 2020
Article in press: April 17, 2020
Published online: April 28, 2020
Processing time: 84 Days and 17.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The adenoma detection rate (ADR) is inversely associated with the incidence of interval colorectal cancer and serves as a benchmark quality criterion during screening colonoscopy. However, adenoma miss rates reach up to 26% and studies have shown that a second inspection of the right colon in retroflected view (RFV) can increase ADR.

AIM

To assess whether inspection of the whole colon in RFV compared to standard forward view (SFV) can increase ADR.

METHODS

Patients presenting for screening or surveillance colonoscopy were invited to participate in this randomized controlled trial and randomized into two arms. In RFV arm colonoscopy was initially performed with SFV, followed by a second inspection of the whole colon in RFV. In the SFV arm first withdrawal was performed with SFV, followed by a second inspection of the whole colon again with SFV. Number, size and morphology of polyps found during first and second inspection in each colonic segment were recorded and all polyps were removed and sent for histopathology in separate containers.

RESULTS

Two hundred and five patients were randomly assigned to the RFV (n = 101) and SFV (n = 104) arm. In the RFV arm, both polyp detection rate (PDR) and ADR were increased under second inspection in RFV (PDR 1st SFV: 39.8%, PDR 2nd RFV: 46.6%; ADR 1st SFV: 35.2%, ADR 2nd RFV: 42%). Likewise, in the SFV arm, PDR and ADR were increased under second inspection (PDR 1st SFV: 37.5%, PDR 2nd SFV: 46.6%; ADR 1st SFV: 34.1%, ADR 2nd SFV: 44.3%) with no significant differences in ADR and PDR between the SFV and RFV arm. Mean number of adenomas per patient (APP) was increased in the RFV and SFV (APP RFV arm: 1st SFV: 1.71; 2nd RFV: 2.38; APP SFV arm: 1st SFV: 1.83, 2nd SFV:2.2). The majority of adenomas additionally found during second inspection in RFV or in SFV were located in the transverse and left-sided colon and were > 5 mm in size.

CONCLUSION

Second inspection of the whole colon leads to increased adenoma detection with no differences between SFV and RFV. Hence, increased detection is most likely a feature of the second inspection itself but not of the inspection mode.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Adenoma; Adenoma detection rate; Colonoscopy

Core Tip: This is the first study to systematically assess the effect of an additional retrograde inspection of the whole colon on adenoma detection rate compared to a second inspection in standard forward view. Our results show that both, additional inspection of the entire colon in retroflexion as well as in forward view leads to an increased adenoma detection rate with no differences between retrograde and forward inspection. Further, the majority of adenomas additionally found during second inspection in retroflexion or in forward view were located in the transverse and left-sided colon and were > 5 mm in size. These results clearly suggest that increased adenoma detection is most likely a feature of the second inspection itself but not of the inspection mode.