Colonoscopy prep has come a long way.
When people think about colon cancer screening, colonoscopy preparation is usually the first thing that springs to mind. It seems like everyone has heard a horror story about how terrible the preparation is. Gallons of chalky liquid, fasting and discomfort are thought of to be the norm. However, much has changed in recent years. Many people are surprised by how different the actual colonoscopy preparation is than from what they have heard.
Patients now have a number of options for colonoscopy preparation. Modern methods are now no longer your father’s colonoscopy, that is for certain. For a more detailed overview, watch Dr. Jeffrey Weber in the video below:
Jeffrey Weber MD: Here is the way that colonoscopy preparation has changed over the years.
Preparation for colonoscopy has always been the part of the encounter that people fear the most. We have to give you diarrhea, we have to clean out your colon in order to do a good job. Over the years, the preparations however have improved greatly and now you have more choices in how you do the preparation based on your preferences.
In the old days and even today, a lot of preparations are done with the standard GoLYTELY prep which is 16 eight-ounce glasses of a very nasty tasting fluid over two to three hours before the colonoscopy encounter begins.
Recently, improvements have been made including pill preps, preps with small bottles of liquid followed by quantities of fluids of your choice and most recently, preparations with a couple of packets of powder mixed in a small amount of water followed by fluids over the next few hours of your choice. These preparations have improved greatly patient satisfaction and I think have improved the experience of colonoscopy lately far more than it had been in the past.
Latest posts by Dr. Jeffrey Weber (see all)
- The Risks of Colonoscopy - January 1, 1970
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- What Should I Know About Colon Polyps? - January 1, 1970
