Colonoscopy is a well-established practice utilized for the evaluation of lower gastrointestinal tract diseases including, mostly commonly, the screening for colorectal polyps and cancer. Despite improvements in endoscope technology, a significant minority of procedures (up to 10%) can not be safely completed due to a variety of patient factors and technical difficulties. These factors primarily include prior abdominal surgeries resulting in adhesions, severe diverticular disease, inadequate bowel cleansing, and patient discomfort.
Options for an incomplete colonoscopy include several endoscopic and non-endoscopic modalities. Non-endoscopic modalities include radiologic studies such as CT/MRI colonography as well as a retrograde barium study. Relative disadvantages of these modalities is the inability to remove colonic polyps, perform biopsies, and in the case of barium studies, a lower sensitivity for pathology. Alternative endoscopic modalities have been described that may assist in successfully completing colonoscopy Of these alternative methods, balloon-overtube assisted colonoscopy is the most promising, but this method has not been studied in a randomized, controlled fashion. In this study, we aim to compare balloon-overtube assisted colonoscopy versus standard colonoscopy for patients with prior incomplete colonoscopy.
