Flexible fiberoptic sigmoidoscopy: its use in family medicine.

Flexible fiberoptic sigmoidoscopy (FFS) can be both learned and taught by family physicians. The patient benefits because unnecessary referral is reduced. The physician benefits by offering more comprehensive services to the patient and by demonstrating expertise in the procedure. In a collaborative study involving family physicians performing more than 1,500 FFS examinations, both the 35-cm scope and the 65-cm scope were effective instruments, but most physicians who had experience with both scopes preferred the longer one. In addition, the results of this study support a significant advantage in pathology detection for the 65-cm scope compared with the 35-cm scope.