Colonoscopies can be unpleasant, another option is a virtual one, currently be made to be faster and less expensive, as this doctor discussed:
"I happen to be old enough to have had a screening colonoscopy on two occasions. As anyone who has had this procedure performed will know, the exam itself isn’t nearly as bad as the preparation for it. With good sedation, one hardly remembers the procedure. However, drinking a gallon or so of go-litely bowel prep and then waiting for your gut to evacuate has never been high on this doctor’s list of favorite things to do. For that reason alone, many people avoid having a screening colonoscopy even though it is a test that can save lives by detecting cancer early.
Avoiding the nasty prep and the invasive (some would say embarrassing) test are reasons why many people are attracted to an alternative test called “virtual” screening colonoscopy. In this test, a CT scanner replaces the colonoscope and a gut-cleaning prep isn’t required. The American Cancer Society has added virtual colonoscopy to its list of recommended screenings and studies have shown that the virtual exam is as reliable as the scope method in finding polyps or cancer (New England Journal of Medicine).
Read More: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/healthblog/archive/2010/11/29/fine-tuning-virtua...
