It is Possible to Maintain the Performance of Screening Colonoscopies Under MEOPA During the Covid 19 Epidemic Period When Access to the Operating Room is Limited

Colorectal Cancer

Type of anesthesia, Colonoscopy and polypectomy, Colorectal cancer, Colonoscopy quality indicator, COVID 19

Feedback: during the COVID-19 epidemic, access to operating theaters was restricted so that anesthetists and nurse anesthetists could reinforce the resuscitation workforce. The MEOPA was used as an alternative to sedation, allowing colonoscopies to be carried out, colon polyps and colorectal cancers to be detected.

Colonoscopy is a major procedure for screening for cancers and diagnosing colorectal lesions. In France, general anesthesia remains the most widely used sedation method for colonoscopy. Faced with several constraints such as difficulty of access to the operating room, length of hospitalization and contraindications to general anesthesia, several sedation methods have been adopted. The best known is sedation by MEOPA (equimolar mixture of oxygen protoxide of nitrogen) marketed under the name of Kalinox. It is offered as a second-line treatment after general anesthesia. Since March 2020, the COVID-19 health crisis has forced us to change our care. Faced with restricted access to the operating room (anesthetists and nurse anesthetists requisitioned to participate in the care of patients in intensive care), colonoscopy under MEOPA was offered to patients who could have benefited from general anesthesia before the crisis. This monocentric retrospective descriptive study at the CHSF (Centre Hospitalier Sud Francilien) will make it possible to assess the quality of colonoscopies performed under MEOPA in the first line. This is a feedback, the MEOPA having allowed us to continue and maintain the performance of screening colonoscopies during the COVID 19 epidemic.

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