Coloscopy and Colography Are the Appropriate Terms To Use When Referring to the Endoscopic and Radiological Examination of the Lower Gastrointestinal Tract

Abstract

Purpose: The endoscopic examination of the colon is commonly referred to as colonoscopy and is currently the dominant modality for colon cancer screening, a major public health concern. It also forms the bulk of the current gastrointestinal endoscopic practice. The endoscopic examination of the colon is also referred to as coloscopy, especially in Europe. Despite the evolution of endoscopy, a large proportion of the US population remains unscreened and attempts are being made to enhance compliance with colon cancer screening. Part of this effort is the development of the non-invasive, radiological study of the colon, which is interchangeably referred to as both colonography and colography. This shows that the rapid advent of new technology and procedures in the field of gastroenterology has resulted in the indiscriminate use of medical terminology. Medical terminology is based on word construction and uses the concept of the word root in the context of the source language. By applying the rules of grammar and linguistics, we demonstrate that the desirable word root is col- (from the Greek col-on, meaning the gut) and not colon- (from the Greek colon-os, meaning a hill). The correct compound terms col-oscopy, col-ography, col-itis, col-ectomy and col-ostomy should therefore prevail over the corresponding terms colon-oscopy, colon-ography, colon-itis, colon-ectomy and colon-ostomy which would otherwise refer nonsensically to the examination of the hill, inflammation of the hill, surgical excision of the hill, etc. With regard to the two aforementioned ways of examining the lower gastrointestinal tract, the only correct terms are therefore coloscopy and colography. Old habits die hard, and colonoscopy has already become the established term to describe the endoscopic examination of the gut. However, it would certainly be appropriate for the term colography to prevail over colonography when referring to the more recently developed radiological evaluation of the gut, e.g. in the form of CT colography, PET colography and virtual coloscopy.