Science Daily, May 24, 2007 WASHINGTON, D.C. – To prevent colon cancer, the second leading cause of United States cancer deaths, the American Cancer Society recommends that after age 50 people undergo colonoscopies every ten years to detect signs of that disease — either actual tumors or precancerous polyps. But in one out of every 1,000 to 2,000 colonoscopies, doctors inadvertently perforate — or puncture — the colon. Most of these patients need urgent surgery to close the wound and spend 10 days in the hospital. One in 10 dies, usually because delays in closing perforations allow colon contents to leak into the abdominal cavity, causing deadly conditions such as peritonitis and sepsis. Now, however, in a series of animal studies, researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) have developed a technique for closing perforations promptly after they are recognized by using clips or sutures that can be inserted through the anus via endoscope, thus avoiding invasive surgery. Similar clips and sutures have been used for some time by surgeons performing minimally invasive laparoscopic procedures — including several gynecological operations and other procedures such as gall bladder removal.