In an evaluation of more than 1 million colonoscopies performed in an ambulatory setting, the calculated risk for aspiration-related pneumonia was just one in 10,000 procedures. The risk for infectious pneumonia was two in 10,000.
Other researchers have examined this risk, but “this is the first study to examine pneumonia rates exclusively in ambulatory surgery centers,” said Susan M. Hutfless, PhD, SM, an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University