Colonoscopy: Anesthesia – yes or no?
As a rule, colonoscopy is performed without anesthesia. However, patients can request a sedative medication, which the doctor administers through a vein. Thus, most patients do not feel any pain during the examination.
However, small children rarely tolerate the somewhat unpleasant colonoscopy without anesthesia. They therefore receive a general anesthetic, during which they are artificially ventilated.
Procedure: Colonoscopy of the large intestine (colonoscopy)
For the colonoscopy, the patient lies in a lateral position on an examination couch. The doctor applies a little lubricant to the colonoscope, a tube with a built-in camera, so that he or she can insert it more easily into the patient’s intestine via the anus. The tube is so flexible that it can easily follow the coils of the colon.
What is the procedure for a colonoscopy (small bowel)?
The procedure of small bowel endoscopy differs from the colonoscopy procedure: The endoscopy is performed from above (from the stomach) or/and from below. For some years now, the so-called capsule endoscopy has been the method of choice. For this procedure, the patient swallows a small capsule which, despite its small size, has quite a lot going for it: it contains a camera, a lamp and a transmitter.
Over the next eight hours, the swallowed capsule travels through the entire digestive tract, taking around 60,000 images in the process. In order for the doctor to be able to see the mucosa on the images, the patient is allowed to consume a maximum of clear liquids during this time. Solid meals are only allowed again towards the end of the examination, as the capsule is then already in the colon. At the end, the capsule is simply excreted with the stool.
How long does a colonoscopy take?
Capsule endoscopy takes about eight hours, the time it takes for the capsule to pass through the entire digestive tract. However, the patient does not have to stay in the doctor’s office or clinic during this time and does not have to return there until the end of the examination.
