Colonoscopy

Today I'd like to talk about a procedure called a colonoscopy. You may have been offered a colonoscopy in order to help to investigate your symptoms which may include bleeding, a change of bowel habit or other symptoms such as abdominal pains or changes in your stool. It is a very common procedure and it's very safe and it is performed with the patient awake. You don't require a general anaesthetic but you may wish to ask for a sedative in order to reduce your anxiety during the procedure or you may wish to ask for some Entonox gas to again keep you comfortable during the procedure. The procedure will be performed mainly as a day case, so you'll be in the endoscopy department and have the procedure and then you will usually be able to go home at the end of it. In order to have the procedure, you are required to take some bowel preparation which are strong laxatives and you take them a day before the operation in order to help clear the bowels so that when a camera or the colonoscopy is performed, the doctor can have a good look around and not have any obscured views. So a colonoscopy is a camera test and the colonoscope is a thin flexible tube with a camera so that the inside of your bowel can be looked at, which is your large colon. The The way it is performed is that you will be asked to lie on your side, the camera or the long flexible tube is inserted into your bottom and it is manoeuvred all the way round the large colon having a look to see what might explain your symptoms. It may be that biopsies are taken whether or not it is normal or abnormal and if a polyp is found, it may be that either a biopsy is taken or the whole polyp is removed itself, which will be a treatment. A common reason to find the procedure uncomfortable is because we need to pass gas into your large colon in order to make the lumen wider so as to obtain good views. You will find this uncomfortable and you will find a sensation to pass wind and the best thing to do is just pass wind and this is very normal and will help reduce your discomfort. You will also find that you need to lie in different positions so in some cases we can perform the whole colonoscopy whilst you are lying on your side but it may be that the doctors and nurses ask you to lie on your back or lie on your other side. you'll be told what to do and be given help to change position during the procedure. One of the risks of the procedure are pain or discomfort and it's very important that if you are in any pain or discomfort you let the nurse or the doctor know so that we can provide you with more pain relief or sedation or change the technique in order to make you more comfortable. There is a small chance of perforation which is making a hole in the colon and if this were to occur you would need to have an operation to fix this. There is a chance of missing a lesion and your doctor will explain to you if you have not got good views inside, if there's still faeces or stall in the large colon, it may be that your procedure needs to be repeated on another day with stronger laxative.