CLINICAL EVALUATION OF NEW THIN COLONOSCOPE

Abstract

We devised a new thin and soft colonofiberscope "XCF-P" (Olympus) of which the outer diameter is 9.0 mm, for the purpose of relieving painful discomfort accompanied by colonofiberscopy, and also evaluated clinical availability of the XCF-P on total colonof iberscopy. We succeeded in reaching the cecum in 109 of 113 patients (96.5%), and the average time was 13.8 minutes. Based on the average time, this result was not as good as the result of COL-MS (Fujinon) about which we previously reported, probably because of too much softness of XCF-P's shaft. But in our questionnaire after total colonoscopy, we obtained results that 28% of the examind patients had no pain, and 61% had only slight pain. There was no patient who had severe pain associated with colonofiberscopic examination and we had no case in whom the examination was impossible because of the pain. In conclusion, we demonstrated that XCF-P is very useful instrument for total colonoscopy, but we think that further improvement about stiffness of shaft will be needed.