[Bowel cleansing prior to colonoscopy. A prospective, randomized, blind comparative study].

A randomized, prospective, single blind study was performed in 90 hospital inpatients to compare the effect of three different bowel preparatory regimens prior to total colonoscopy. The extend of bowel cleansing, acceptance by the patients, side effects as well as body weight, blood pressure, pulse rate and various laboratory parameters served as major assessment criteria. Peroral colonic lavage was superior to a senna preparation and a combined laxative agent with regard to the extend of bowel cleansing (p less than 0.001). The study failed to detect significant differences in terms of acceptance by the patients between the three study groups. Minor deviations were found after the combination laxative (slight decrease of serum potassium levels by 0.32 mmol/l), after the senna preparation (minimal decrease of the heart rate), and after peroral lavage (slightly less weight reduction) as compared with the other study groups, respectively. We conclude that peroral lavage is significantly more effective with regard to the extend of bowel cleansing, when compared with two other bowel preparatory regimens, which use a senna preparation or a laxative combination, respectively. Likewise, this study failed to detect significant differences in terms of acceptance by the patients.