How useful is a colonoscopy, and are colonoscopies really necessary?

Indeed, colonoscopy is commonly performed for 2 main purposes:

1. Diagnosis of a symptoms like PR bleeding (rectal bleeding) or Screening for colorectal cancer.

2. In the hospital setting, it serves another purpose for the treatment of patients with colorectal conditions like bleeding or even obstruction.

In terms of screening, there are standard guidelines to guide the necessity of it.

An example of this would be https://fascrs.org/healthcare-providers/education/clinical-practice-guidelines/colorectal-cancer-screening-and-surveillance-recom. This is based in United States.

Do check with any doctor/nurse or if you know anyone whom is a locally trained healthcare professional, there is no harm in having a casual conversation about this.

Hi Cai Shum,

A colonoscopy is one of the investigative tools we have to examine the colon, rectum and in some cases the terminal ileum. The alternatives are a computed tomography scan of the colon (also known as a CT Colonography) and a barium enema.

The key benefit of performing a colonoscopy is the ability to directly visualize the colonic lumen through a high definition lens and biopsy the lesion if necessary.

This cannot be done with the other imaging options. The common example is the poorer ability of scans to differentiate small polyps from stool remnants, as well the inability of scans to remove these polyps (polypectomy) should they be present.

This leads to an additional procedure with the additional inconvenience, cost, and effort attached with it.