Faecal blood testing cuts unnecessary colonoscopies by a third, shows study

Undertaking faecal blood testing before referring patients with suspected colorectal disease for further investigations reduces unnecessary colonoscopies by just under a third, a primary care study has shown.1

Most patients referred by GPs for colonoscopy did not have significant colorectal disease and so were unnecessarily exposed to a small but significant risk of complications. A Dutch research group evaluated whether using …