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- Colon Polyp
This is a rather large, sessile polyp in the ascending colon (it is attached to the wall like a wart and not on a stalk like a mushroom). It has a central depression, suggestive of cancer. Fortunately, it was a benign adenoma with minimal dysplasia and was able to be removed without incident.
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- Colon Cancer
This colon cancer is growing into the lumen of the colon. Most colon cancers develop from colon polyps. That is why screening colonoscopy is so important; the aim is to identify and remove the polyps before they have a chance to turn into a more serious problem.
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- Ulcerative colitis
This photograph shows an abrupt transition from a normal mucosa, with its normal blood vessel pattern, to an abnormal mucosa, characterized by redness, granularity and loss of the normal blood vessel pattern. This appearance is typical of ulcerative colitis.
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- Diverticulosis
The arterioles which supply blood to the mucosa lining of the colon create a weakness in the muscle layer. This can lead to a diverticulum, which are outpouchings of the mucosa into the wall of the colon. About eighty percent of the time, they are usually of no concern. In 20% of patients or less, they may cause pain, bleeding, inflammation, stricture or perforation.
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- Crohn Disease
In this case, the colon lumen is narrowed and the mucosa is characterized by nodularity and pseudopolyps. These are features are those of an inflammatory bowel disease called Crohn disease which are fairly severe in this case.
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- Colon Ulcer
This colon ulcer was among several found in a patient with systemic vasculitis. Inflammation of the blood vessels supplying the lining of the colon caused it to ulcerate.
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- Diabetic Vasculopathy in the Rectum
Diabetes can damage blood vessels. The most common way see this is to look into the patients eyes with an opthalmoscope. In this patient, the vascular changes were so prevalent they were identifiable in the rectal mucosa.
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- Cytomegalovirus Colitis
Immunocompromized patients are more susceptible to viral infection. This renal transplant patient had recurrent bleeding from this lesion, identified on biopsy as a cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection of the colon.
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