Colonoscopy

A colonoscopy is the exam of the colon or large intestine. Basically the physician, oftentimes, a gastroenterologist, will insert a long flexible tube, which has a lighting source, and it may also have an operative channel such that you can place a device through this long hose, so to speak, where you can take tissue samples or you can lasso a polyp. So colonoscopies a examination of the large intestine to either look for sources of bleeding such as polyps or tumors, or in the case of this discussion, dilated veins, hemorrhoids.