Colonoscopy in the follow-up of patients with colorectal carcinoma.

In an effort to determine the value of colonoscopy in the follow-up of patients who have undergone resection for colorectal carcinoma, the authors evaluated prospectively 100 consecutive patients who, during follow-up after resection for colorectal cancer, had normal findings on barium enema examination and also underwent colonoscopy. The follow-up from operation to colonoscopy ranged from 8 months to 15 years (average 2.6 years). Two recurrent and two metachronous carcinomas were detected. In addition, 25 polyps (3 benign) were removed from 22 patients. Twelve of the malignant polyps were less than 1 cm in dimension, the other 10 were larger. Colonoscopy is considered valuable in this setting for earlier detection and removal of recurrent and metachronous carcinomas and potentially premalignant lesions.