Archive for September, 2009
Virtual Colonoscopy
Usually, the first symptoms of colon cancer appear once it’s too late and colon cancer patients are already into Stage III, where the survival rate is down to about 40%. Yet, if caught early, this deadly disease is 93 to 100% curable. Each year, 49,920 Americans die of metastatic colon cancer that has migrated throughout their bodies into other organs. In the beginning, a virtual colonoscopy can find the tiniest abnormalities, like non-cancerous colon polyps, that can be easily removed with a colonoscope or minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.
To prepare for a virtual colonoscopy, you will need to complete a bowel prep, just like with a normal colonoscopy prep. You will need to empty all solid waste materials from your gastrointestinal tract by sticking to a clear liquid diet for 1 to 3 days before the procedure. This means you may only consume fat-free broth, strained fruit juice, water, coffee, tea, Gatorade and Jell-O. The night before your colonoscopy screening, you will take a laxative (in pill or powder format) to loosen your stools and increase the frequency of your bowel movement until everything has been cleared from your system. Just before the exam, you’ll drink a contrast liquid, which will make your large intestine appear very bright during the scan so abnormal cells will stand out better.
During the virtual colonoscopy, you’ll be positioned on the CT examination table, usually lying flat on your back. During a CT scan, a thin tube is then placed into the anus and rectum. Gas will be pumped through the tube to expand the large intestine for a clearer picture. For an MRI scan, contrast media will be administered rectally to expand the large intestine. The computer will then take images of the large intestine/colon, as patients are asked to hold their breath for about fifteen seconds to steady the images. A second pass is done after patients roll over onto their stomachs. Once the scan is done, the tube is removed and the patient is free to leave. The whole procedure only takes 15 minutes and doctors can read the results within 30 minutes.
One of the virtual colonoscopy’s limitations is that patients still have to endure the liquid diet regiment and they still need to have something inserted into their anus and rectum. Many people don’t like the idea of that, despite its propensity to save lives. Additionally, there is limited availability for this new procedure in some locations and Medicare currently does not cover the cost of this exam, although most private insurance companies do. In a website memo, Medicare representatives said: “We have determined that there is insufficient evidence on the test characteristics and performance of screening CT colonoscopy in Medicare-aged individuals, and that the evidence is not sufficient to conclude that screening CT colonoscopy improves health benefits for asymptomatic, average-risk Medicare beneficiaries.” Even though there have been several studies demonstrating the virtual test’s efficiency at colon cancer prevention, Medicare has not yet accepted these new findings.
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