Current situation of colonoscopy in Romania--3 years of colonoscopy performance.

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the situation of colonoscopy in Romania in 2007, as compared to a study we performed in 2004. Material and method. We performed a multicentric prospective study, by means of a questionnaire distributed to 36 centers of endoscopy from Romania, requesting the total number of colonoscopies performed in March 2007, the number of complete and incomplete colonoscopies, the number of colonoscopies performed with or without sedation. A number of 28 centers responded to our questionnaire, 15 university and 13 non-university departments. Results. According to the responses we received, 2,684 colonoscopies were performed in March 2007, with a mean number of 96 colonoscopies/month/center, 76.9% of them total. In the university departments 1,776 colonoscopies were performed, 78.9% total, while in the non university departments 908 colonoscopies were performed, 73.1% total (p=0.0021). 46.7% of the colonoscopies were performed without sedation, 53.2% with sedation and 0.1% under general anesthesia (intra surgery colonoscopy). In conclusion, this multicentric prospective study has shown a slight increase in the number of colonoscopies as compared to 2004 (though insignificant), but with an improvement in quality (total colonoscopies 76.9%-2007 vs. 70.5%-2004, p<0.001). There still exists a difference regarding the performance in university vs. non university departments, and the percentage of cases in which sedation was used during colonoscopy is approximately the same (46.7%), still very small.