Providers should prescribe patients with an afternoon colonoscopy same-day bowel preparation instead of the split-dose alternative, Medscape reports.
Madison Heights, Mich.-based Ascension St. John Providence's Isabel Manzanillo-DeVore, DO, presented results from a randomized, controlled clinical trial at ACG 2018, Oct. 5-10 in Philadelphia.
Researchers assessed 262 patients scheduled to undergo an afternoon screening colonoscopy. Half were assigned to same-day prep and half to split-dose.
Here's what you should know:
1. The same-day group started prep at 5:30 a.m. with instructions to finish the polyethylene glycol electrolyte solution at least four hours before their appointment. The split-dose group was told to drink half their prep at 5 p.m. the day before the procedure and finish the other half at 5:30 a.m. the day of their procedure.
2. Boston Bowel Preparation Scale scores were significantly higher in the same-day group than the split-dose group (8.05 vs. 6.33).
3. Patients were more satisfied with the same-day solution than the split-dose solution (4.29 to 4.02).
4. Fear of the bowel prep solution was long cited as a reason patients skipped colonoscopies, but in this study, 94.7 percent were able to consume the same-day and 93.1 percent were able to consume the split-dose.
Dr. Manzanillo-DeVore said, "More patients in the same-day arm said they would ask for the same preparation again."