Exam Preparation
Virtual Colonoscopy - Clear
liquid diet for 24 hours prior to the exam and a bowel
cleansing kit the day before the exam. The kit will
be mailed to you from our center.
The most important part of any exam including the Virtual
Colonoscopy, as with conventional colonoscopy, is the
proper preparation. In order to perform an accurate
evaluation of the colon a thoroughly cleaned colon is
necessary. An inadequately cleaned colon can lead to
an in-conclusive study or even erroneous results.
Virtual colonoscopy is performed with a high-speed
multidetector CT Scanner. The patient lies on the CT
exam table and a small flexible enema tip is placed
in the rectum so that air can be introduced to expand
the colon.
A scan of the colon is performed with the patient lying
on their back and then repeated with the patient lying
flat on their stomach. Each scan takes about 20 seconds
with the total time for the procedure approximately
10 minutes.
Since there is no sedation or anesthesia the patient
may leave shortly after the procedure and resume normal
activities. The patient may resume normal activity without
delay.
After reconstruction of the data the radiologist will
evaluate the images to detect colon polyps or cancers.
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