Colonoscopies save lives

A colonoscopy allows us to look inside the large intes­tine (colon) for the pres­ence of can­cer or pre­can­cer­ous growths. It is one of our most impor­tant exams for men and women ages 50 and older.

About 150,000 Amer­i­cans are diag­nosed with colon can­cer each year, and 50,000 die from the dis­ease. Colon can­cer is the sec­ond lead­ing cause of cancer-related deaths, yet many of these deaths could be pre­vented if older adults fol­lowed test­ing recommendations.

Many peo­ple post­pone or neglect colono­scopies because they believe the tests are too inva­sive, uncom­fort­able and time-consuming. But the ease of the exam sur­prises most of our patients.

Dur­ing a colonoscopy, we insert inside the rec­tum a long flex­i­ble tube attached with a video cam­era that allows us to inspect the large intes­tine for polyps or other suspicious-looking tis­sue that could be can­cer­ous or develop into can­cer. The polyps can be removed and biop­sied dur­ing the procedure.

Although only about five per­cent of polyps are found to be can­cer; we remove benign polyps so they don’t turn into can­cer. Colon can­cer always starts as a polyp and remov­ing the polyp is the only way we know to pre­vent the disease.

The pro­ce­dure itself takes 20 min­utes to an hour. Patients wear a gown and take the exam while lying on their sides on an exam table. A mild seda­tive and/or intra­venous pain med­ica­tion min­i­mizes dis­com­fort. You’ll need to have some­one drive you home and you’ll need to take the rest of the day off work while the med­ica­tion wears off.

The pro­ce­dure poses very few risks. Rare com­pli­ca­tions include adverse reac­tion to the med­ica­tion, bleed­ing from the site where tis­sue is removed and a tear in the colon or rec­tal wall.

Most patients agree that the home prepa­ra­tion the night before your colonoscopy is the most unpleas­ant part of the pro­ce­dure. We typ­i­cally ask patients to fast and take a lax­a­tive to clean out their colon so we can see a clear and accu­rate pic­ture of it dur­ing the exam. The cleans­ing involves repeated trips to the restroom before your visit.

The Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety rec­om­mends a colonoscopy every 10 years begin­ning at age 50 for men and women. Peo­ple con­sid­ered to be at high risk for the dis­ease may need to start screen­ing before age 50 and be screened more fre­quently. It is impor­tant that peo­ple with risk fac­tors dis­cuss their screen­ing sched­ule with their physician.

Risk fac­tors include age, fam­ily his­tory, African-American race, high-fat and low-fiber diet, seden­tary lifestyle, dia­betes, obe­sity, smok­ing and heavy alco­hol use. About 90 per­cent of colon can­cer cases occur in peo­ple over the age of 50. You are more likely to develop the dis­ease if you have had a first-degree rel­a­tive with a diag­no­sis; your risk is even greater if more than one fam­ily mem­ber has had it.

If you expe­ri­ence rec­tal bleed­ing, be sure to dis­cuss it with your doc­tor. It could be a sign of colon can­cer at any age.

The colonoscopy is the best method we have to exam­ine the entire large intes­tine for can­cer or pre­can­cer­ous tis­sue. The test is espe­cially impor­tant because colon can­cer often does not present symp­toms in its early stages. The absence of symp­toms is no rea­son to post­pone your colonoscopy.

There is no rea­son to be ner­vous or embar­rassed about the procedure.

Dur­ing March, National Col­orec­tal Aware­ness Month, sched­ule your colonoscopy and encour­age your friends and fam­ily to do the same. It is pain­less and may save your life.

Dr. Ken Graf­feo is a board cer­ti­fied sur­geon with Delaware Sur­gi­cal Spe­cial­ists and an active mem­ber of the Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal Staff.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Mar 8 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.