How Reliable is Colonoscopy in NYC

How Reliable is Colonoscopy in NYC

Till the year 2000, Colonoscopy was one of the most recommended medical examination tests to screen the colon cancer in patients. But over the period of time, various other diagnostic tests have been introduced which are equally effective and less invasive then the colonoscopy. Although colonoscopy is an excellent way to diagnose polyps and colon cancer but it might not be 100% effective in diagnosing the real thing. Moreover, it is expensive too. But all thanks to the other alternatives that has helped the patients to get screened in more comfortable and better way.

Believe it or not but colon cancer as well as colorectal cancer both are curable if got treated at initial phase only. Because both of them are slow growing cancer types, it might be bit difficult to trace them in between. Then it is here when colonoscopy and other diagnostic tests come in to play a major role in screening and diagnosing them. However, because colonoscopy is one of the most unpleasant and invasive tests, people often try to escape from it and look out for other suitable alternatives.

Till now there has not been any thorough study that can indicate the accuracy of colonoscopy. Still, it is one of the most common screening tests that are recommended by the doctors to diagnose colon, intestine and rectum cancer.

Fecal Immunochemical test

And if done well, it can be one of the most worthwhile medical tests. But, if the patient is not willing to spend so much on such an unpleasant test, then they might opt for other tests also which are slowly getting closer to colonoscopy. Some of these are:

· Fecal Immunochemical test (FIT)
· Stool DNA test
· Fecal occult blood test (FOBT)
· Cologuard
· Sigmoidoscopy, and
· CT colonography

Many researches and studies have shown that colonoscopy is an excellent screening test but efficiency of this test is only 94%. Although it is pretty good but no one can say it to be the perfect diagnostic test because it still carries 6% chances of missing the cancer.

Above this, even the whole procedure of colonoscopy is very uncomfortable. The patient needs to stay on bland and liquid diet for 24 hours prior to the test. Apart from this, they also need to drink gallon of cleansing meditated solution to clean the colon clearly. Then during the procedure, the patients are given high dose of sedatives so that they can feel comfortable and can relax themselves during the course of examination. And after the test is done, patients might feel bit uneasy or pressure or a bit pain in their abdomen. So, the whole procedure of colonoscopy can be a bit stressful.

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