About 75% of colorectal cancers in China occur in the rectum, and 2/3 of them occur in the low rectum, which can be detected by a simple but effective examination, which is rectal finger examination, also called anal finger examination. Often, many people refuse to undergo an anal finger test due to shyness and other reasons, so that the condition is only discovered when it gets seriously worse. Today, let’s talk about the things that happen during an anal finger test. What is a rectal examination? Rectal examination, also known as anal examination, is a simple but very important clinical examination method, which is jokingly called “one finger magic”, in which the doctor touches the patient’s anus with one finger without any auxiliary equipment. Diseases as small as polyps and hemorrhoids and as large as cancer can be detected through rectal finger examination. In addition, through rectal finger examination, the prostate of male examiners can be touched to help detect prostate enlargement or prostate cancer; the uterus of female examiners can be touched to detect the presence of posterior uterine tilt, cervical tumors, adnexal tumors or inflammation, etc. But such an important examination, many people choose to give up during the medical examination. Most of them feel shy and scared. Rectal finger examination is a screening tool. It is simple to operate and can roughly determine the presence and nature of lesions in the anus and rectum 7 to 10 cm from the anal verge. Rectal examination can detect tumors, inflammation, and various injuries. Therefore, rectal examination should be performed as part of the annual health checkup. What are the conditions that require a finger test? Change in bowel habits: such as an increase in the number of bowel movements, alternating constipation and diarrhea, feeling of incomplete bowel movements, thinning or deformation of stools, etc. without obvious causes. 2.Changes in stool characteristics: thinning of stool, blood and mucus in stool. 3.Anal pain: common in anal fissure, perianal abscess, perianal abscess should be detected early and excised early to drain the pus, general anti-infective drug treatment is not effective. 4, anal pus, fluid: may be the symptoms of anal fistula, finger examination can be clearly diagnosed. Anal fistula cannot heal on its own and requires surgical treatment. 5, hemorrhoids: mainly manifested as blood in the stool and lump prolapse, clinically very easy to confuse with rectal cancer, anal finger examination can mostly make a distinction. What diseases can be detected by rectal finger examination? (1) Rectal polyps, fibroids, internal hemorrhoids, anal papillomas, anal papillitis, etc., can be felt in different forms of masses during finger examination. (2) Rectal prolapse, anal incontinence, etc., which manifests as anal relaxation. (3) Anal canal rectal fistula is a granulomatous canal around the anus, which consists of three parts: internal, fistula and external opening. The incidence is second only to hemorrhoids and can also be detected by rectal finger examination. The above types should not be easily self-diagnosed, and the specific disease must be judged by the doctor after examination. 2, rectal cancer Data show that the 5-year survival rate of patients with advanced colorectal cancer is only 7% after surgery, while the treatment effect of early patients is quite good, and more than 90% of patients can be cured after surgery without chemotherapy. Thus, early detection and early treatment are crucial to improve the treatment effect of colorectal cancer. However, in fact, the early diagnosis rate of colorectal cancer in China is less than 10%, while it is 25% in the United States, and many patients are already in the middle and late stages when they are diagnosed. How to detect bowel cancer at an early stage? Besides observing the danger signals from bowel movement, we should also pay attention to physical examination. In colorectal cancer specialist physical examination, rectal finger examination is highly emphasized. Because rectal examination is very simple, painless and inexpensive, and very sensitive to diagnose rectal cancer, it is a powerful tool to detect rectal cancer. Clinical observation shows that more than 70% of Chinese patients have very low rectal cancer, which is very close to the anus and can be felt by rectal finger examination. Many rectal cancer patients who are misdiagnosed as hemorrhoids often do not do rectal finger examination, and the misdiagnosis rate is as high as about 70%. The reason is that many people are afraid of shyness and unwilling to do the examination, basically, the unit physical examination includes rectal finger examination. It should be noted that the proportion of low rectal cancer in China is very high, and most of them can be touched in rectal finger examination, but those in high position may not be touched. So those that cannot be touched do not necessarily have rectal cancer, and colonoscopy should be done. Most patients with prostate cancer have no symptoms or even symptoms in the early stage, and they only go to the hospital for examination after symptoms such as frequent urination, difficult urination and hematuria appear, at which time most of the disease has already developed into advanced stage and lost the chance of radical treatment. How can prostate cancer be detected early? In addition to the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, rectal examination is also important. Most prostate cancers originate from the periphery of the prostate gland, so a rectal exam (where the doctor touches the prostate gland through the anus) can reveal any lesions in the prostate gland and is valuable for early diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer. If you have a family history of prostate cancer, you should undergo PSA test and rectal examination once or twice a year from the age of 40, so as to achieve early detection and treatment.