Colonoscopic assessment of large bowel diseases and its effectiveness

Abstract

Introduction: Colonoscopy, for any suspected colonic disease is the first line of investigation. The spectrum of colonic diseases varies from benign to malignant lesions, of which the incidence and mortality differ across the world due to differences in risk factors. Colonoscopy is carried out for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes. Materials and Methods: It was a hospital based cross sectional study conducted in Dr. Shankarrao Chavan Govt. Medical College, Nanded, during study period of May 2016 to December 2017 on 104 patients presented with clinical features of large bowel diseases. Results: The mean age of the patients was 45.59 ± 18.46 years (range 5 – 95). Males constituted 64.4% patients while females were 35.6%. On colonoscopy most common suspected diagnosis was carcinoma rectum (45.3%), followed by inflammatory bowel disease (26.7%) and rectal polyp (12%). Most of the lesions were found overall in rectum (49.5 %) followed by sigmoid colon (16.8%) and caecum (12.6%). Conclusion: Colonoscopy is a safe and simple procedure helps in locating various lesions in the entire colon and confirming the diagnosis by histopathology. Colonoscopy helps not only in the diagnosis but also in the treatment and follow up of the patient especially in the colonic diseases like colonic cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases.