Procedures and treatment
- Determine the cause of abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, or a change in bowel habits..
- Detect and treat colon cancer or colon polyps.
- Take tissue samples for evaluation under a microscope— biopsy.
- Stop intestinal bleeding.
Colonoscopy or coloscopy is the endoscopic examination of the large bowel and the
distal part of the small bowel with a CCD camera or a fiber optic camera
on a flexible tube passed through the anus. It can provide a visual diagnosis (e.g., ulceration,
polyps) and grants the opportunity for biopsy or removal of suspected
colorectal cancer lesions. Colonoscopy can remove polyps as small as one millimeter or less.
Once polyps are removed, they can be studied with the aid of a microscope to determine if they
are precancerous or not. It can take up to 15 years for a polyp to turn cancerous.
Colonoscopy is similar to sigmoidoscopy—the difference being related to which parts of the
colon each can examine. A colonoscopy allows an examination of the entire colon
(1200–1500 mm in length). A sigmoidoscopy allows an examination of the distal portion
(about 600 mm) of the colon, which may be sufficient because benefits to cancer survival of
colonoscopy have been limited to the detection of lesions in the distal portion of the colon.
