# Can a person's colonoscopy results be "normal" and still have Crohn's?



## Zeb

I don't know and am curious.  How far does the colonoscopy scope go when doing the procedure?  Can it go far enough to find problems that may be Crohn"s?

Thanks!


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## Entchen

Hi: Great question, and the answer is yes. A colonoscopy examines the colon (large intestine) and can sometimes also reach the terminal ileum in the small intestine. This is enough to cover a very significant proportion of places where Crohn's occurs, but not all. The scope cannot reach any of the rest of the small intestine, so a colonoscopy might not show any problems and you could still have Crohn's.
:hang:


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## DustyKat

Hi Zeb,

If there are no problems a colonscopy can visualise the large bowel and into the distal end (where the small bowel joins the large bowel) of the terminal ileum. If someone has inflammation in the terminal ileum they often can't get the scope into that area. They can't scope the whole small bowel so there are areas that are missed. To visualise that you need to have other tests done eg. CT scan, MRI, Barium follow through, Pill Cam, Ultrasound.

HTH,
Dusty

Haha just saw Kelly's post but I will submit anyway.


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## scifi-enthusiast

Kelly said:


> This is enough to cover a very significant proportion of places where Crohn's occurs, but not all.


To further emphasize Kelly's statement, Crohns can manifest anywhere from the mouth to the anus. When I was diagnosed I was riddled with ulcers from the tip of my tongue, all along the digestive tract, and down to the anus. One of the ulcers in my large intestine started hemorrhaging and I had to have 6 blood transfusions in 13 hours. They decided to do a resection, which had to be done blind since they couldn't necessarily do a colonoscopy.


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## Jennifer

I have Crohns and my last scope was normal. So yes!  A colonoscopy is not the only method used in diagnosis though. There are CT scans with fun stuff like barium, blood work, an endoscopy (down the throat) etc.


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