Although colonoscopy indications are similar in HIV-positive patients when compared to sero-negative persons, the findings and their incidences seem to be different, and some are more specific to immunosuppressed patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate indications and findings of colonoscopies comparing patients, sero-negatives and sero-positives to HIV. We performed 1909 colonoscopies from 1997 to 2005, 1341 in HIV-negative persons (771 females and 570 males with mean age of 51.2 years old) and 568 in HIV-positive people (137 females and 431 males with mean age of 34.4 years old). Statistics revealed more males among HIV-positive patients and more females in the sero-negative group. The HIV-positive was the youngest group. There were more indications due to intestinal bleeding (22.1%) and abdominal pain (12.7%) in the HIV-negative persons, and chronic diarrhea (45.9%) among the sero-positive patients. Colitis and tumors were the commonest findings in HIV-positive patients and diverticulosis were the most frequent among the sero-negative patients. The most diagnosed tumors were adenocarcinomas in the sero-negative group and Kaposi sarcoma among the sero-negative patients. The comparison between these two groups showed differences in gender, age and some indications. Findings were similar, despite incidences being different.
Colonoscopy; Diarrhea; Polyps; Gastrintestinal bleeding; HIV infections; AIDS
