In a lower GI series, the patient receives a barium enema, which coats the intestines and rectum. Fluoroscopy can help patients regain lost functions. This type of analysis helps physicians and speech pathologists identify and instruct individual patients on new ways to produce some sounds. And at Tel Aviv University in Israel, a fluoroscopically-guided catheter is used to clear women's fallopian tubes of scar tissue that has been preventing conception. Some previously infertile patients have conceived within two months of treatment.
Fluoroscopy can improve the safety of other procedures.
For example, blindly probing a tumor to remove cells for examination, some surgeons believe, can actually spread the disease by introducing cancer cells into the bloodstream. Knowing precisely which cell types are cancerous can aid a physician in choosing the most effective therapy. Fluoroscopy is also useful in studying the esophagus. In a procedure called Maloney dilation, a tube is passed through constrictions in the esophagus to try to alleviate a persistent feeling of having a lump in the throat. Done blindly, the procedure is successful 80 percent of the time, but damages delicate throat tissues up to 2.2 percent of the time.