In recent years, with the improvement of living standards, the incidence of colorectal diseases is increasing, especially the occurrence of colorectal cancer is becoming more and more common. To find out the causes of colorectal cancer, as well as how to prevent and detect it early, we must first understand our colon. Today, we will introduce the colon and the knowledge related to colon diseases systematically, hoping to help you better understand ourselves.
It is about 1.5 meters in length and is in the abdominal cavity in the shape of an approximate “?” around the small intestine. The large intestine includes the colon and rectum. Depending on the location of the colon, the colon can be divided into cecum, ascending colon, hepatic flexure, transverse colon, splenic flexure, descending colon and sigmoid colon.
The large intestine is connected to the small intestine above and to the anal canal below, and is connected to the outside world through the anus. Therefore, we can insert a colonoscope through the anus for the examination and treatment of many colorectal diseases.
The large intestine is in the shape of a “?” The large intestine is distributed around the belly in the shape of a sign, and it covers almost the entire abdominal cavity. In the center of the large intestine is the small intestine, above it are the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts and stomach, to the upper left is the spleen, behind it are the large blood vessels, kidneys and ureters, and below it are the uterus, fallopian tubes and bladder. Because of the close proximity of the colon to these organs, lesions of the colon are sometimes difficult to distinguish from lesions of these organs. For example, many patients with colorectal cancer are often misdiagnosed as gastric disease, and many patients with liver cancer are misdiagnosed as colitis. Therefore, in order to accurately diagnose colorectal diseases, colonoscopy must be performed as early as possible.