A sigmoidoscopy is also a general screening tool for colon cancer. Read more: Colorectal colon cancer ». Depending on your personal health history and whether your family has a history of colorectal cancer, you might need to have a sigmoidoscopy every five years after the age of Preparing for a sigmoidoscopy is similar to preparing for a colonoscopy.
If your entire colon needs to be empty, preparation becomes even more like what you need to do for a colonoscopy. You may be given a powder laxative to mix with fluid to help empty your intestines. Liquids you can consume include:. Before the procedure, your doctor will have you lie on your left side on an examination table. The tube has a light and a very small camera on the end so images can be transmitted onto a monitor for your doctor to see.
The tube also inflates your colon with some air to make it easier to examine. If your doctor sees any polyps or growths, they might remove them. If there are any abnormal areas in your colon, small pieces of tissue might be removed for further examination. If your doctor takes a tissue sample, bleeding could occur in the place where the sample was taken. The entire procedure takes 10 to 20 minutes. The bowel prep will cause diarrhea , so you should stay close to a bathroom.
Different bowel preps may contain different combinations of laxatives —pills that you swallow or powders that you dissolve in water and other clear liquids—and enemas. Some people will need to drink a large amount, often a gallon, of liquid laxative over a scheduled amount of time—most often the night before the procedure. You may find this part of the bowel prep difficult; however, completing the prep is very important. Your doctor will not be able to see your sigmoid colon clearly if the prep is incomplete.
Call a health care professional if you have side effects that prevent you from finishing the prep. A trained medical professional performs a flexible sigmoidoscopy during an office visit or at a hospital or an outpatient center. You typically do not need sedatives or anesthesia, and the procedure takes about 20 minutes. The scope pumps air into your large intestine to give the doctor a better view.
The camera sends a video image of your intestinal lining to a monitor, allowing the doctor to examine the tissues lining your sigmoid colon and rectum. The doctor may ask you to move several times on the table to adjust the scope for better viewing. Once the scope has reached your transverse colon , the doctor slowly withdraws it and examines the lining of your sigmoid colon again. During the procedure, your doctor may remove polyps and send them to a lab for testing. Colon polyps are common in adults and are harmless in most cases.
However, most colon cancer begins as a polyp, so removing polyps early is an effective way to prevent cancer. If your doctor finds abnormal tissue, he or she may perform a biopsy. If your doctor found polyps or other abnormal tissue during a flexible sigmoidoscopy, your doctor may suggest you return for a colonoscopy. You may pass wind during the procedure, this is expected so don't be embarrassed. You might have pain relief using gas and air Entonox.
This is a fast acting pain relief breathed in through a mouth piece. During the test, they take photographs of your bowel lining. If your doctor or nurse sees any abnormal areas they will take tissue samples biopsies.
If you have any growths in the bowel lining polyps , they can remove them with a wire loop they put down the colonoscope. They send samples to the laboratory to be checked by a pathologist. Flexible sigmoidoscopy is a very safe procedure but your nurse will tell you who to contact if you have any problems after your test. Your doctors will make sure the benefits of having a sigmoidoscopy outweigh any possible risks. You may have some bloating, cramping or pain in your tummy abdomen after the test.
This is due to the gas or air put into the bowel. This should go away after a few hours. Walking around, warm drinks and peppermint water may help you to pass wind. After having a biopsy or polyp removed, you might have some bleeding. This is usually a small amount and stops on its own within a couple of days. Sometimes people with piles haemorrhoids may have some bleeding after the test.
Very rarely there is a small tear in the bowel wall perforation. If this happens it's likely you need surgery to repair the tear. Your nurse will give you instructions about what to look out for and who to contact if you have any problems at home. You should get your results within 2 weeks.
They may be sent to you and your GP or you may get them at a follow up appointment. The endoscopist will explain to you at the time if they've taken any biopsies or polyps. They won't be able to give any more information than this because the pathologist needs to look at them in the laboratory under a microscope.
Note : the information below is a general guide only. The arrangements and the way tests are performed, may vary between different hospitals. Always follow the instructions given by your doctor or local hospital. The sigmoid colon is the final portion of the bowel that is joined to the rectum. A sigmoidoscope is a small tube with an attached light source about the thickness of your finger. An operator - a doctor or nurse - inserts the sigmoidoscope into the back passage anus and pushes it slowly into the rectum and sigmoid colon.
This allows the doctor or nurse to see the lining of the rectum and sigmoid colon. The procedure is not usually painful but it may be a little uncomfortable. The most commonly used is the flexible sigmoidoscope. This instrument allows your doctor to see around bends in the colon. A flexible sigmoidoscope gives doctors a better view of the lower colon and usually makes the examination more comfortable.
The rigid sigmoidoscope has generally been replaced by the flexible version and is now used less often. It allows your doctor to look into the rectum and the bottom part of the colon but it does not reach as far into the colon as the flexible sigmoidoscope. Sadly, despite all the evidence of benefit from bowel screening, almost half of people in the UK Sigmoidoscopy can be used to investigate the cause of bleeding or pain from the back passage.
Your doctor may also suggest this test if you have various other bowel-related symptoms. The test can also look for evidence of inflammation or cancer of the rectum and lower colon. Sigmoidoscopy can also be used to remove small fleshy lumps polyps that can be found in the colon and take samples of tissue biopsy for analysis.
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