Colonoscopy is the most reliable of all examination methods for the early detection of bowel cancer.
Bowel screening
Do you live in the canton of Basel-Stadt or Basel-Landschaft and are aged 50-69? Then you can benefit from a franchise-exempt colorectal cancer screening examination in the cantonal colorectal cancer screening programme.
You can choose between a stool test (every 2 years) or a colonoscopy (every 10 years).
As part of the Basel bowel cancer screening programme, all men and women between the ages of 50 and 69 living in the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Baselland are invited to undergo a bowel cancer screening examination. The bowel cancer screening programme is carried out on behalf of the Department of Health and coordinated by the Basel Cancer League.
Clarunis - University Abdominal Centre Basel is a medical partner of the Basel-Stadt Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme at Claraspital and all other Clarunis locations.
Procedure of a colonoscopy.
In 95% of cases, a colonoscopy is performed with the patient asleep for their comfort. Sedation is omitted on special request or, for example, if the patient is very overweight or has severe lung disease, which can make sedation dangerous.
As soon as you are asleep, the doctor will first examine the rectum with a finger; usually the rectum and anal canal are assessed in detail using a short proctoscope.
The actual colonoscopy is performed using an endoscope. This is a flexible tube about 1.5 metres long and around one centimetre thin. It contains a light source, a state-of-the-art computer chip that generates a video image and a working channel for thin instruments (forceps or snares) in a very small space. Devices are also attached to the tube that allow the instrument to be flushed and insufflated, as well as gas and fluid in the bowel to be suctioned out. The images are transmitted to high-resolution monitors.
The doctor inserts the endoscope into the rectum from the anus and gently pushes the tip of the device through the large intestine until it reaches the end of the small intestine through the so-called ileocecal valve. This usually takes 10 to 15 minutes.
When the endoscope is withdrawn, the bowel is inspected from the inside. The bowel is inflated slightly with carbon dioxide so that it unfolds better.
On average, one or more so-called adenomas (polyps) are found in three to four out of ten people over the age of 50. These are usually removed using tiny forceps or a snare (with or without high-frequency current). He can take tissue samples from suspicious-looking areas of mucous membrane and use high-resolution images and special colour filters to assess the bowel from the inside.