How often do doctors miss polyps on colonoscopies?

Keeping in mind we might miss some (10-20%) of the small polyps, and also the fact that small polyps grow slowly (except in Lynch syndrome), we do a follow up colonoscopy after finding one polyp after 5 years, after finding multiple polyps after 3 years, if no polyps present (and the colon prep was good and the colon clean) 10 years, except when the patient has a Lynch syndrome, that it always is 2 years. read more

Using a tiny camera, doctors are able to look at the walls of the colon in an attempt to detect polyps and other pre-cancerous growths. Once detected, those growths can be removed during the course of the colonoscopy. Patients often must miss two days of work: the day of preparation and the day of the test. read more

Have a colonoscopy, get any precancerous polyps removed, and you should almost never get colon cancer. Then, last spring, researchers reported the test may miss a type of polyp, a flat lesion or an indented one that nestles against the colon wall. read more