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St Mark's Hospital Foundation is a charitable arm of St Marks Hospital Harrow, the UK's only specialist hospital for colorectal disease.Virtual Colonoscopy
Bowel cancer affects over 34000 people in the UK each year and is the second commonest cause of cancer related death. However bowel cancer can be cured if detected at an early stage and even prevented if its precursor, the colonic polyp can be identified and subsequently removed.
Virtual Colonoscopy (VC) utilises the latest CT body scanner technology for detecting and staging colonic polyps and bowel cancer. VC offers a relatively non-invasive, patient friendly investigation whereby, a small thin flexible catheter is inserted into the bottom and carbon dioxide is used to distend the bowel. The patient then undergoes a CT scan, lasting only a few seconds. There is no requirement for sedation or pain killers. Sometimes, if an abnormality is found, the patient may be offered a 'same-day' procedure for endoscopic removal or biopsy – a 'one-stop' service highlighting the strong links between the St. Mark's Intestinal imaging Centre and The Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy.
St. Mark's/NPH believe that Virtual Colonoscopy should be available to all and we are proud of our multidisciplinary service, which aims to be a model of practice to guide implementation of VC at other UK centres. With this aim, we organise a comprehensive Virtual Colonoscopy training programme including both residential of non-residential courses for both Radiographers and Radiologists.
For more details click on the Virtual Colonoscopy events calendar 2010 below.
Virtual Colonoscopy Course Calendar 2010
Faculty include Dr David Burling, Dr Arun Gupta, Mrs Janice Muckian
| Date | Events | Number of Delegates |
| 1-5th March | St.Mark’s “Hands on” CT Colonography (CTC) Training Course for Radiographers | 6 |
| 27and 28th April | Two Day Virtual Colonoscopy Workshops for Radiologists | 16 |
| 5-9th July | St.Mark’s “Hands on” CT Colonography (CTC) Training Course for Radiographers | 6 |
| 14th September | St.Mark’s CT Colonography Workshop for Radiographers | 40 |
| 15th September | Bowel Cancer Screening Programme CTC Course for Radiologists and Radiographers | 40 |
| 9th and 10 November | Two day Virtual Colonoscopy workshops for Radiologists | 20 |
| 15-19th November | St.Mark’s “Hands on” CT Colonography (CTC) Training Course for Radiographers | 6 |
| Video shows images from a virtual colonoscopy examination in a 69 year old woman, demonstrating a 7mm colon polyp. The red mark on the polyp, is a feature of the new polyp detection system (ColonCAD by MedicSight) used routinely by experts at St. Mark's to enhance detection of subtle polyps. |
The following leaflets about Virtual Colonoscopy are available for patients:
Virtual Colonoscopy Diet Sheet
Virtual Colonoscopy - Taking Picolax