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February 10, 2012

Virtual Colonoscopy (cont.)

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My personal approach to recommending virtual versus optical colonoscopies

  • In healthy patients who want all the polyps (including ones smaller than 5mm) to be removed, I recommend optical colonoscopy

  • In patients who do not want to undergo optical colonoscopy and are willing to accept the possibility of leaving small polyps untreated, virtual colonoscopy is an alternative to optical colonoscopy.

  • In unhealthy patients with advanced heart, lung, liver, or kidney diseases, virtual colonoscopy may be a safer and less invasive alternative to optical colonoscopy.

New England Journal of Medicine, October 2007


Last Editorial Review: 10/10/2007



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