I know a lot of people are nervous about having a
colonoscopy, so let's take the mystery out of it.
This is our endoscopy area.
We always make sure that the gowns and drapes are only
revealing what we absolutely need to review.
So you can be reassured I'll be in the room at all times.
We have a nurse and we have a technician.
The equipment is set up to monitor your blood pressure,
heart rate.
We have two monitors to look at the actual procedure so the
nurse can look at the procedure, I can look at the
procedure, and we can communicate together.
The equipment is right here.
It's all compact.
It's high definition.
And it actually is quite remarkable that there's a
camera on the end of this that can see as clearly as my
fingerprint, and, needless to say, can see extremely polyps.
It's through this instrument that we can put air in.
We can suction.
And we can irrigate.
On the day of your procedure, you would have prepared at
home to make sure your bowels are as clear as possible.
The better you do, the more we can see.
The more we can see, the more we can help you.
Most people have medicines given so they're put into a
sleepy state, where they can still converse but many times
don't have any memory of the conversation.
If there are special circumstances where you need
to have a deeper anesthesia, that's arranged on a regular
basis and we use our fine staff of anesthesiologists to
give you care and they will be monitoring not only your
sedation but your breathing.
This is the instrument we use to examine the colon.
It's called a colonoscope.
It looks very intimidating.
Look how long it is.
In fact, we rarely use more than about half of it to
examine most people's colons.
Women's colons, they're about a foot
longer than men's colons.
So even though they may be a little bit more challenging,
we usually only spend about half an hour, sometimes a
little longer, in doing the examination.
Of course, if we find things that we have to remove, then
it may take a little longer.
This instrument can see phenomenal detail.
It's high definition.
Here two objects that you are familiar with.
Here's a penny and a quarter.
In the vast majority of cases, we're able to remove any
abnormal tissue that we identify.
Polyps which can develop into cancer are easily removable if
they're a certain size.
It's actually what we want to find in the colon, because
this is the real prevention we can do with colonoscopic
examination.
If we can remove these, prevent them from ever growing
to a cancer, and then we can, on a regular basis, reexamine
your colon because you're now at risk for colon cancer.
What we don't want to do is wait so that when we do
examine your colon we actually find this, which is something
that has grown too long and has now gone through the wall
of the colon.
If we're not sure whether a polyp has spread through the
wall of the colon, a special technique called and
endoscopic ultrasound can be done, which can see through
the wall of the polyp and the wall of the colon.
If it is spread through the wall of the colon, it no
longer can be taken out endoscopically.
It would need to be removed surgically.
Fortunately, the medicines we use also gives you something
that most people enjoy, which is amnesia.
In other words, you're not going to remember a lot of the
examination.
Many people are quite surprised when the examination
is over that we've even done the exam.
For the rest of the day, you can't drive a car, you can't
be responsible for child care, and a number of other
restrictions so that your best safety is maintained.
The next day, you should be able to resume your routine
activities.
Typically, if a polyp is found, it's usually small and
few in number, and then next interval examination typically
is five years.
If you're at increased risk because of a family history or
other diseases, then you may have are
shorter interval recommend.