[Endoscopy in the diagnosis and therapy of surgical diseases. Colonoscopic diagnosis (author's transl)].

Fibroscopes and the techniques of introducing them are now so highly developed that, except for an impassable stenosis, the entire colon can be inspected in every case and the adjacent small intestine in 90% of the cases. Indisputable advantages as compared with indirect methods such as radiology are the direct inspection of the mucosa, the possibility of reliably differentiating between pathological findings and residual stool, the detection of minute lesions that escape radiological examination, and the possibility of removing tissue samples (forceps biopsy, big-particle biopsy, polypectomy). Thus it is possible for the first time to confirm diagnosis morphologically prior to surgery.