Clinical significance of colonoscopy before laparoscopic bariatric/metabolic surgery in Japanese patients

PurposeObesity is known to be associated with colorectal adenoma (CRA) and colorectal cancer (CRC); yet colonoscopy is not considered an essential preoperative evaluation before bariatric/metabolic surgery. The aim of this study was to clarify the clinical significance of preoperative colonoscopy for obese Japanese patients.MethodsThe subjects of this retrospective study were 114 patients who underwent screening colonoscopy before bariatric/metabolic surgery. Multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the independent predictors of CRA/CRC among the characteristics identified as significant or nearly significant by univariate analyses.ResultsColonoscopy revealed abnormal findings indicating the need for biopsy or polypectomy in 20 of the 114 patients (17.5%), and CRA was diagnosed in 13 patients (11.4%). Three patients (2.6%), who were all >= 56 years old, had a CRA >= 10 mm in diameter. The multivariate analysis showed that older age and male sex were significant predictors of CRA/CRC, which was identified in 46.2% of the male patients aged >= 46 years.ConclusionOur findings suggest that older age and male sex may be risk factors for CRA/CRC in obese Japanese candidates for bariatric/metabolic surgery; thus, preoperative colonoscopy should be considered for these high-risk patients.