Clinical Analysis of Outpatients in Colorectal Clinic

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: As the incidence of coloanal diseases has been steadily increasing during the past few decades in Korea, we illustrate the necessity of a specialized colorectal clinic for the efficient management of such diseases. METHOD: Outpatients at our colorectal clinic were studied epidemiologically and clinically by retrospective studies between November 1986 to December 1996. RESULTS: During this period, the total number of outpatients were 30,590 of which 24% were new patients. The patient pool consisted of anal diseases (62%), colon diseases (28%) and other diseases (10%). In this study, we found that condyloma, perianal abscesses, anal fistulas were predominant in males compared to females while rectovaginal fistulas, functional bowel diseases, and perianal fissures were predominant in females. There was no sexual bias for rectal cancer. Colorectal diseases occurred in all age groups; however, the peak age was in the fourth or fifth decade where social activity was maximum. There was a variation in age incidence among different disease entities. The range of age for benign conditions such as hemorroids, perianal abscessess and functional bowel diseases were from the third to the fifth decades; however, malignant lesions such as colon cancer were frequently seen in older patients (> 40 years). Condyloma was frequently seen in younger patients (< 20 years). There were no monthly variations in the incidences of colorectal diseases. Yearly variations were not found for colorectal disease, but were found for cancer. Of the cancers, the incidence of rectal cancer was higher than s-colon cancer or colon cancer in year variations. The diagnostic time has been reduced significantly over the past decade. The mean time required for a diagnosis work up in the period from 1984 to 1986 was 9.4 days; the diagnostic time in the period from 1993 to 1996 was 4.7 days. CONCLUSIONS: The incidences of coloanal disease have increased recently in Korea; thus, the demand for an efficient outpatient colorectal clinic has inevitably increased. We concluding that a specialized clinic, such as our colorectal clinic, has become essential for properly managing the exploding number of coloanal patients in Korea.