The impact of abdominal compression devices on colonoscopy outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE

Colonoscopy is the gold standard method for colorectal cancer screening. Looping occurs in 91% of cases undergoing colonoscopy and can cause patient discomfort, prolonged cecal intubation time (CIT), and colon perforation. This meta-analysis investigates the impact of abdominal compression devices (ACD) on colonoscopy outcomes.

METHODS

A systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizing randomized controlled trials (RCTs), retrieved by systematically searching: PubMed, EMBASE, WOS, SCOPUS, and Cochrane through February 2nd, 2023. Continuous and dichotomous outcomes were pooled using mean difference (MD) and risk ratio (RR) along with confidence interval (CI) using Revman. Our review protocol was prospectively published on PROSPERO with ID: CRD42023397344.

RESULTS

We included eight RCTs with a total of 1,889 patients. ACD was effective to decrease CIT (MD: -2.15 with a 95% CI [-3.49, -0.80],  = .002), postural change (RR: 0.57 with 95% CI [0.49, 0.66],  = .00001), and VAS pain score (MD: -1.49 with 95% CI [-1.81, -1.17],  = .0001). However, there was no difference between ACD and control groups regarding manual compression (RR: 0.65 with 95% CI [0.42, 1.00],  = .05), complete colonoscopy rate (CCR) (RR: 1.01 with 95% CI [0.99, 1.04],  = .31), and cecal intubation length (CIL) (MD: -2.25 with 95% CI [-7.64, 3.14],  = .41).

CONCLUSION

ACD during colonoscopy may enhance patient comfort by reducing CIT, pain, and postural changes. Nevertheless, additional RCTs are necessary to validate these results and determine the most suitable approach to utilize ACD for colonoscopy.