Dangers And Risks of Colonoscopy Procedures
It’s indisputable that colonoscopy screening procedures save lives. If detected early, abnormal cells can be removed before they even become cancerous, with little to no chance of a reoccurrence. Yet, in the later stages of cancer, the five-year survival rates can drop to as low as 7% if left unchecked. However, recent research has prompted concerns that some of the colonoscopy prep drugs can severely damage the kidneys. Oral preparations made with sodium phosphate (including prescription Visicol tablets and over-the-counter Fleet-Phosphosoda) have caused at least 21 cases of acute kidney failure, which led to the need for transplants or permanent dialysis. The elderly, heart attack sufferers and people on high blood pressure/hypertension drugs like ACE inhibitors are at considerable high risk of colonoscopy complications, researchers wrote in the November issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Occasionally, there are more severe risks of colonoscopy procedures. Sometimes excessive bleeding occurs if larger colon polyps are removed. There is a 30 to 50% chance that bleeding will occur for the 2 to 7 days following colon polyp removal. In rare cases, the colon lining may be torn, requiring hospitalization or surgery. Another risk is radiation exposure from the CT scan machine used during a virtual colonoscopy, where the 5 MsV rays are said to be 2,000 to 3,000 times’ more potent than a dental x-ray and 2 to 3 times’ more toxic than radiation exposure from a dirty bomb (3 MsV).
In a 2005-2006 study, 110 patients in Chapel Hill, North Carolina were asked about the side effects from their colonoscopy procedures. Of the 110, 17% of the patients reported side effects from their screening colonoscopy process, which included abdominal pain, cramping, vomiting, lightheadedness, sharp pains in the right hip and fatigue. On average, people spent 21 hours prepping for the procedure, which involved 16.5 hours flushing their system, 0.8 hours traveling, 1.4 hours in the waiting room, 12 minutes undergoing sedation, 20 minutes for their colonoscopy procedure and 47 minutes of on-site recovery.
Because a colonoscopy is the golden standard of colon cancer prevention and there is a nation-wide drive to get more people screened for early detection, it is difficult to get an accurate figure on the risk of colonoscopy complications. According to ‘The Annals Of Internal Medicine,’ the rate of serious complications from the procedure is “10 times higher than for any other commonly used cancer-screening test.” In 2006, a CDC-funded study found that 1 in 200 people who had a procedure that involved cancer removal put them in the hospital. In routine procedures where no colon polyps were removed, just 1/1,000 had a serious complication, while patients getting biopsies had 7/1,000 colonoscopy complications like bleeding or perforations.
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