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The colon is the last part of the digestive system. It extracts water and salt from solid wastes before they are eliminated from the body. The colon consists of four sections: the ascending colon (including the cecum and appendix), the transverse colon, the descending colon, and the sigmoid colon. There are countless conditions that affect the colon including obstructive disorders, infectious diseases, and neoplasms (cancers).
During normal lower intestinal function, the waste material (stool or feces) is slowly pushed along the large intestine to the rectum by the muscular bands in the colon. As a person ages, this continuous pressure can cause a bulging pocket of tissue, called a diverticula, that pushes out from the colon wall. Diverticula can occur throughout the large intestine, but are most commonly found near the end of the left intestine. The condition of having diverticula in the large intestine is called diverticulosis. Diverticulosis is usually asymptomatic but can cause significant GI bleeding that may require removal of part of the colon.