Post written by James Love, MD, from the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Our study focused on comparing quality performance metrics between screening and surveillance colonoscopies. Although screening colonoscopies have well-established benchmarks, particularly for adenoma detection rate (ADR), surveillance procedures lack such validated metrics.

This study aimed to determine whether screening quality measures could be applied to surveillance colonoscopies and to assess the relationship between ADR and other performance indicators.

Colonoscopy is a critical tool in colorectal cancer prevention, but its effectiveness relies on maintaining high-quality performance. A minimum ADR of 35% is recommended for screening colonoscopies, but there is no clear consensus on quality benchmarks for surveillance procedures. Given the increasing volume of surveillance colonoscopies, ensuring their quality is essential to optimizing patient outcomes. By examining various performance metrics, we sought to address this gap and enhance the standardization of surveillance colonoscopy quality.

Our retrospective analysis of outpatient screening and surveillance colonoscopies at a tertiary health center revealed that surveillance ADR was much higher than screening ADR (65.6% ± .02% vs 47.0% ± .01%; P < .001), highlighting the need for tailored benchmarks for surveillance procedures rather than relying solely on screening guidelines.

Moving forward, further research should validate appropriate quality thresholds for surveillance colonoscopies. Establishing such benchmarks could lead to improved patient care and more standardized procedural assessments across different clinical settings.

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