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Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
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Mayo Clinic Housecall
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Why it's done
By Mayo Clinic staffYour doctor may recommend a colonoscopy to:
- Investigate intestinal signs and symptoms. A colonoscopy can help your doctor explore possible causes of abdominal pain, rectal bleeding, chronic constipation, chronic diarrhea and other intestinal problems.
- Screen for colon cancer. If you're age 50 or older and at average risk of colon cancer — you have no colon cancer risk factors other than age — your doctor may recommend a colonoscopy every 10 years or sometimes sooner to screen for colon cancer.
References
- Corbett JV. Laboratory Tests and Diagnostic Procedures With Nursing Diagnoses. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall; 2008:745.
- Schilling McCann JA, ed. Diagnostic Tests. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2007.
- Colonoscopy. National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/colonoscopy. Accessed March 18, 2009.
- Fletcher RH. Screening strategies in patients at average risk for colorectal cancer. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 18, 2009.
- Levin B, et al. Screening and surveillance for the early detection of colorectal cancer and adenomatous polyps, 2008: A joint guideline from the American Cancer Society, the US Multi-Society Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, and the American College of Radiology. Gastroenterology. 2008;134:1570.
- Weinberg DS. In the clinic: Colorectal cancer screening. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2008;148:ITC2-1.
