There are various procedures available today within the medical field that help to diagnose different diseases, find broken bones and also find cancerous tumors within the body. These procedures are CT scans, ultrasounds, x-rays, MRIs and cat scans.
All of these tests help doctors and nurses determine the medical condition of patients. The tests can help with diagnosing cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons disease, the location of a tumor, the location of a torn ligament or a broken bone and how to go about treating these various conditions.
One of the tests available today but not mentioned above is the virtual colonoscopy. This test is a medical breakthrough in the field of medicine and is becoming more and more popular to use today.
This test is less invasive than a regular colonoscopy, which is recommended by doctors for men to have performed once they are at the age of 50, and every couple of years afterwards. A colonoscopy helps to detect colon cancer and other problems within the bowels such as prostate cancer.
The virtual colonoscopy involves a scan of your colon and no colon scoping. This means that no tubes are inserted into your colon but pictures of your colon are taken by a machine and are then analyzed by the doctor and the nurses.
The process involves taking hundreds of pictures of the colon and the abdomen, allowing the doctors and nurses to take a virtual tour of the body of the patient. This procedure takes no more than 10-15 minutes and the patient can return to work as soon as the procedure is complete.
The virtual colonoscopy has become so widely popular lately because it is such a non-invasive procedure. There is a small moment of discomfort or unpleasant sensations that take place during the procedure but other than that there is no pain involved in having this procedure performed. Patients that have this colonoscopy performed can benefit from it because it can help to find tumors growing in the colon as well as any other problems arising near or around the prostate.
Doctors recommend that a virtual colonoscopy is performed on a patient every three years if the original test comes back as normal. This test also requires no sedation, it does not require a colonscope be inserted into the colon and it is much quicker than the traditional colonoscopy.
One of the disadvantages of this new procedure is that no tissue samples are obtained for testing of masses or polyps. This means that if a mass or polyp is detected the patient will need to have a follow up colonoscopy, the traditional one, to obtain samples of the tissue for testing.
This screening is currently not covered by medical insurance or Medicare because it is still fairly new and will have to pay out of pocket by the patient at a sum of around $400-$800 per procedure. Because this procedure is still fairly new, a negative traditional colonoscopy should be performed every 10 years while this new colonoscopy, if negative, should be performed every three years.
