Abstract
To the Editor.—In the Letter by Taylor et al,1 the authors contend that patients with colonic carcinoma above 15 cm whose conditions are diagnosed using flexible sigmoidoscopy should, prior to surgical resection, undergo rigid sigmoidoscopy to rule out a more distal lesion missed by the flexible instrument.They base their contention on their clinical experiences with two patients— each of whom had distal colon carcinomas that were missed by flexible sigmoidoscopy and subsequently seen by rigid sigmoidoscopy. They suggest that rigid instruments may be better able to detect such lesions because of the straightened configuration that the bowel is forced to assume. While this was true in these two patients, overall there are no data of which we are aware that support this notion. In fact, the available data suggest that flexible sigmoidoscopy, in addition to examining more bowel, giving overall greater diagnostic yield, and being better tolerated
