Sigmoidoscopy proven to be a better option than colonoscopy

Friday, July 06, 2012 by: Nate Curtis
Tags: sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, screening

(NaturalNews) Do you really think that a colonoscopy is still the best screening test or the screening test of choice when it comes to checking a person for signs of colorectal cancer? It turns out that something called the sigmoidoscopy may be just as good as a colonoscopy for testing or even better!

For a long time, the colonoscopy has been the standard screening test of choice when it comes to screening older adults for the risk of developing colon cancer. Essentially, a colonoscopy is an endoscopic evaluation of a person's large bowel and also his or her distal portion of the small bowel. This is usually achieved by way of either a fiber optic camera attached to a flexible tube inserted into one's anus or a CCD camera. This particular process might provide the doctor with a visual diagnosis of colon cancer and even offers the physician the chance at a biopsy or the taking away of a suspicious lesion.

Sigmoidoscopy V. Colonoscopy

A colonoscopy should not be confused with a sigmoidoscopy, which is a similar procedure. In essence, the difference between a colonoscopy and a sigmoidoscopy lies in the specific parts of a person's colon that each procedure can actually evaluate.

One big difference between the aforementioned colonoscopy and a sigmoidoscopy is the fact that the latter is quite minimally invasive, thereby making it a lot more convenient for an individual to have to endure. This minimally invasive medical evaluation examines a person's large intestine, going from one's rectum all the way to the final part of the person's colon. There are two different kinds of sigmoidoscopy, both of which accomplish the same, essential thing: the rigid sigmoidoscopy, which relies on a rigid device, and the flexible sigmoidoscopy, which relies on a flexible endoscopy for the evaluation.

Studies

According to a recent article that appeared in Reuters, the sigmoidoscopy is suggested to be superior to the colonoscopy in screening for colon cancer. The article looked at recent findings of a study that were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. For starters, people who were screened for colon cancer by way of the flexible sigmoidoscopy were 21 percent less likely to develop colon cancer when compared to those folks who did not get this procedure. Additionally, they were also 26 percent less likely to get cancer in general since this procedure even was able to pick out pre-cancerous lesions and the like.

In addition, the sigmoidoscopy is a lot less invasive, which means that people can literally go into their doctor's office and have it done right on the spot! According to a doctor quoted in the Reuters piece, one Alfred Neugut, a colonoscopy is highly unpleasant.

A colonoscopy or a sigmoidoscopy? According to the latest research, it may well be that a sigmoidoscopy is the screening test of choice when looking for something as serious as colon cancer in an individual. This turns the accepted medical thinking on its head for sure, since a colonscopy has always been considered the gold standard in this respect.

Sources for this article include

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/may2012/nci-21.htm

http://www.reuters.com

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232980.php

About the author:
Nate Curtis has written dozens of health articles and is the author of the Amazingly Informative and Extremely Entertaining Free Special Health Report "It's Your Body, You Can Die If You Want To!" Check it out now at http://www.youcandieifyouwantto.com