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What false positive would come out of a colonoscopy? You are visually looking for masses, and removing suspect polyps that are sent in for evaluation. The major
by greedo 1y ago
What false positive would come out of a colonoscopy? You are visually looking for masses, and removing suspect polyps that are sent in for evaluation. The major potential harm of a colonoscopy is a bowel perforation. Serious complications occur roughly 0.3% of the time.
- Someone 1y ago> Serious complications occur roughly 0.3% of the time. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/colon-rectal-cancer/abou..., “the lifetime risk of developing colorectal cancer is about 1 in 24 for men and 1 in 26 for women.” So, it’s a 4% lifetime risk versus a 0.3% per colonoscopy risk. The outcomes for the two risks also are different, but I would think that for many healthy people (e.g. those under 40 years old), the risk of doing such a check are greater than that of not taking it. Reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorectal_cancer#Screening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorectal_cancer#Screening, that’s one of the reasons frequent colonoscopies aren’t advised.
- greedo 1y agoAs you said, the outcomes are wildly different. A 0.3% risk of colonoscopy complications vs missing out on catching a mass when it's relatively easy to treat.