Medical Equipment Glossary

A thin, lighted tube-like instrument used to examine the inside of a colon. Sigmoidoscopes are available as either flexible or rigid tubes which contain a light and a lens for viewing. The device may also have a tool for removing tissue. Similar to a colonoscope (which is used to examine the entire large bowel), A sigmoidoscope is used to examine only up to the sigmoid, the most distal part of the colon.