The Benefits of a Colonoscopy
Colonoscopy is a tool used by doctors to evaluate multiple disease processes and screen for abnormalities. Dr. Falchuk explains that colonoscopies are often used today for preventative care, and may prevent cancer by showing growths through the screening and allow them to be removed. Kenneth Falchuk, MD: Colonoscopy is an excellent tool to evaluate disease processes. That means if patients have bleeding, abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss or other general symptoms of concern but it also an excellent tool with the screening patients who are at risk to develop colon polyps or colon cancer. Diseases that are preventable today with important interventions, diagnostic procedures as colonoscopy or I should say the colonoscopy represents one of those techniques that allow us to screen. Now screening is the standard of care for anyone even if the person is not at risk after age 50 because as we get older both females and males are at increased risk to develop this little growth that we call polyps. The majority are benign but some may not be and if you can pick this or find this change early on, prevent these little polyps from becoming larger ones and migrating into a malignant type lesion, that means cancer, you can really save a life. Also if we start considering what are the indications for colonoscopy, first clearly screening in someone who is healthy in no symptoms, more so in someone who has a family history of colon cancer, colon polyps and it is important to do it in those individuals and know when their relative have colon cancer or colon polyps because then one would start at a younger age. So there will be after the screening. For diagnosis it is important and the evaluation of patients who are bleeding, who may well have Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis with or without bleeding, and areas of narrowing of the colon that allow us to evaluate that further, it prevent cancer as well if the cancer is causing the symptom leading to the area of obstruction. Colonoscopy also allows us to treat patients and allows us to remove polyps as long as they are not very large or malignant already. Some of them can even be removed with today's techniques even when they are large. So there you are, colonoscopy can prevent diseases from progressing further. It is an outpatient procedure with today's techniques, does not take long. Patients are medicated to feel comfortable and it can be done without any untoward side effects considering the fact that any technique that is invasive has a potential risk so the physician has to weigh the benefits versus obviously the risks of any technique. Over all, it has been an excellent adjunct to our evaluation, care of all our patients and it does prevent colon cancer. A 150,000 patients or more year in America develop colon cancer so if we could evaluate our patient population at risk or preventive, from a preventive point of view, do it after age 50 as a screening technique, we will freely modify the history of colon cancer in this country and in the world. Learn more about Dr. Falchuk: services.bidmc.org/Find_a_doc/doc_detail.asp?sid=41414641434540
