A few studies showed that hood-cap assisted colonoscopy (CAC) had improved cecal intubation rate and cecal intubation time but did not help in finding colon polyps in comparison with conventional colonoscopy (CC). However, other studies have shown different results. Therefore, we investigated the efficacy of CAC for the cecal intubation time and polyp detection rate.

Patients for colonoscopy in Busan St. Mary's Medical Center were enrolled to this randomized controlled trial between July 2010 and September 2010. The evaluated outcomes were polyp detection rate, adenoma detection rate, and cecal intubation time in all patients, in difficult cases (history of previous abdominal or pelvic surgery, obesity, old age), and in the expert and non-expert groups.

A total of 260 patients enrolled in this study were randomly allocated to the CAC group (n=130), or CC group (n=130). The overall cecal intubation time was shorter in the CAC group (5.7±3.4 min vs . 7.8±5.7 min, P <0.001). The polyp detection rate was higher in the CAC group (58.4% vs . 43%, P =0.008). The cecal intubation time in the expert and non-expert groups were shorter in the CAC group (expert: 4.1±2.2 min vs . 5.5±2.0 min, P =0.001; non-expert: 6.7±3.7 min vs . 9.4±5.9 min, P =0.001).

The use of CAC improved the detection rate of colon polyps and shortened the cecal intubation time for both the expert and non-expert groups.