ABSTRACT
The aim of bowel preparation is to purge the colon to allow adequate views of the mucosa of the entire large bowel at colonoscopy. There are several methods of doing this ranging from prolonged starvation allowing natural clearance of the gut, to mechanical cleansing with large volumes of preparatory agent. One such regime popular in the USA is 4 L of ‘Kleen-Prep’ taken over 4 hours on the day prior to the procedure. Many people find such volumes difficult to ingest and a kinder regimen is two sachets of sodium picosulphate taken 12 hours apart, the latter sachet a minimum of 8 hours prior to the scheduled time of colonoscopy. Both the ‘KleenPrep’ and the ‘Picolax’ methods are complemented by restricting the patient’s oral intake to clear fluids only for the 24 hours preceding the examination. The patient should be warned that they will suffer diarrhoea for the day and should make efforts to maintain adequate oral hydration.
