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Endoscopy
Education in practice
My approach to water-assisted colonoscopy
  1. Keith Siau1,2,
  2. Iosif Beintaris3
  1. 1 Department of Gastroenterology, Dudley Group Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley, UK
  2. 2 Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
  3. 3 Department of Gastroenterology, North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, Stockton-on-Tees, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Keith Siau, Dudley Group Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Dudley DY1 2HQ, UK; keith{at}siau.org

Abstract

The goal of diagnostic colonoscopy is to achieve procedural completion while maximising effectiveness, patient acceptance and safety. In recent years, international interest in water-assisted colonoscopy (WAC) has been steadily gathering pace. A plethora of high-quality randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses now offer incontrovertible evidence into the benefits of WAC, both for the endoscopist and the patient. Despite this, uptake of WAC within the UK has been limited, with the lack of educational resources representing a significant barrier. This practical step-by-step guide is aimed at both existing practitioners and trainees, with a view to promoting familiarity with WAC and potentially for incorporation into daily practice which may ultimately have a positive effect on quality of colonoscopy and patient experience.

  • colonoscopy
  • water exchange
  • water immersion
  • technique

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

https://doi.org/10.1136/flgastro-2018-101143

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter KS: @drkeithsiau; IB: @iosifbeintaris

    • Contributors KS conceived the article and drafted the original manuscript. IB provided critical review, ensured the validity of the described techniques and enhanced the quality of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests KS and IB have been commissioned by Springer to write a textbook on water-assisted colonoscopy. IB is a co-investigator for the UK Water Assisted Sigmoidoscopy (WASh) trial.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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