Published
Are you also asked to apply pressure on the left lower iliac region during colonoscopy, esp after reaching the sigmoid?
We're usually asked to do it in order to straighten the splenic and hepatic flexure and facilitate easier insertion and to quickly reach the caecum.
It's just too tiring esp with patients having big bellies. :)
janjoy52
3 Posts
I've been doing flexible sigmoidoscopies for 17+ years and I apply the same pricipals of scope advancement as the doctors use with the colonoscopes. The difference is I have the patients, who are not sedated, turn to their backs and press on their lower left bellies themselves. I achieve two benefits: I can better straighten the scope in the bowel and the patients become part of the team in getting the best possible exam they can. Currently we are using the 75cm Olympus scopes in our flexible sigmoidoscopies and with these methods I have been able to advance the scope many times into the cecum. Its good we have a camera to document the appendiceal orifice and terminal ileum because there are a lot of skeptics in family practice but our GI docs are used to us doing this and its fun to hear them say when questioned, "Yeah they (RN endoscopists) do that a lot!"