Colonoscopy and colonoscopic polypectomy using side-viewing endoscope: a useful, effective and safe procedure.

Between January 1998 and December 2005, colonoscopy and polypectomy were performed in 12 patients (ten children and two adults) using a side-viewing endoscope. Earlier attempts to view the polyp and subsequently ensnare it using a forward-viewing colonoscope had been unsuccessful. A total of 13 polyps from 12 patients were removed completely. All ten polyps removed from children were juvenile polyps, while two of the three removed from adults were tubular adenomas and one was a tubulovillous adenoma. Mild oozing of blood, which stopped spontaneously, was observed in one patient. There was no other procedure-related complication. Colonoscopy and polypectomy using a side-viewing endoscope are safe and effective procedures in adults as well as children and should be attempted in patients in whom adequate visualization and polypectomy is not possible by the conventional forward-viewing endoscope.