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A barium enema is a special x-ray of the colon and rectum. The colon and rectum are also called the large bowel.
The bowel doesn’t show up well on normal x-rays. To make better pictures, a substance called barium is put into the bowel.
The barium coats the inside of the bowel and makes it easier to see on the x-rays. Radiological images are created by passing small, highly controlled amounts of radiation through the body and capturing the resulting shadows and reflections on film.
