Table 1.
Characteristics of the patient population.
| Early colonoscopy, all included studies |
All observational studies that included a comparison |
Only RCTs |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All early colonoscopies <24 h (including single-arm studies) | All urgent colonoscopies <24 h |
Control arm of any type |
Early colonoscopy arm | Control arm | |
| Number of studies* | 21 (4 abstracts) | 11 (1 abstract) | 11 (1 abstract) | 2 | 2 |
| Mean age (years) | Range 51–78** | Range 52–68 | Range 52–71 | 60 (11.3) | 61.5 (13.4) |
| Total N | 11,391 | 9803 | 14,544 | 86 | 86 |
| Female (%) | 4957 (48.5%) | 4641 (48.8%) | 7874 (62.6%) | 33 (38.4%) | 32 (37.2%) |
| Hemodynamic instability (%) | 147 (28.7%) | 91 (33.3%) | 78 (65.5%) | 57 (66.3%) | 65 (75.6%) |
| Use of anticoagulant agents (%) | 19 (6.6%) | 11 (5.9%) | 13 (6.6%) | – | – |
| Use of anti-platelet agents (%) | 57 (23.7%) | 29 (15.5%) | 34 (17.3%) | – | – |
*
Not all studies included variables below.
**
Due to variation in age reporting, only lowest and highest mean ages are reported.
***
Excluding studies of diverticular bleeding alone.