Impact of Diverticular Disease on the Detection of Colon Adenomas

Benign adenomas of the colon have the potential to degenerate and become malignant. Therefore adenomatous polyps should be detected and resected during colonoscopy. Factors like advanced age and male gender are associated with the detection of adenomas. The same epidemiological pattern can be found with regard to colon diverticula. Furthermore, western world countries report higher incidences of both colorectal carcinoma as well as diverticular disease. It is not known whether a correlation exists between both entities. Some recent data have postulated higher adenoma detection rates in patients with concomitant diverticular disease (Rondagh EJ et al. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2011; 23:1050-5. Kieff BJ et al. Am J Gastroenterol 2004; 99: 2007-11). If a positive correlation could be found this would possibly affect recommendations regarding colonoscopy surveillance intervals for patients with and without diverticular disease. The investigators therefore plan to conduct the following trial.