Currently, colonoscopy has been a first choice exam to evaluate colon disease. This procedure also has had essencial role in the therapeutic approach of certain groups of pathologies. Colonic cleansing is a necessary and previous stage to do elective colonoscopy. The quality of the colon preparation has been found related directly to the sucess of procedure. Three solutions were compared as colonic cleansing agents in adult patients submitted to colonoscopy at ambulatory regimen. Sixty patients were randomized and then divided into three groups of twenty persons. Each one of these groups was submitted to a colonic cleansing with one of these studied solutions: 10% mannitol solution, sodium picosulphate and sodium phosphate. Taste, tolerance, associated side effects and quality of cleansing preparation were evaluated. Clinic parameters like standing pulse and blood pressure besides the assessment of sodium, potassium, calcium and phophate were also studied and compared with measurements taken before and after bow el preparation of each one of patients. The groups presented similar results when related to side effects. Electrolyte alterations were verified in these three studied groups without clinical signs. The variations related to cardiac frequency, blood pressure and hematocrit, though showing contraction of the intravascular volume, did not attend with clinic effects. The bad taste of sodium phosphate solution did not compromise its tolerance. The sodium phosphate and 10% mannitol solutions provide superior results in quality of colonic cleansing and as much as costs when compared to sodium picosulphate solution. When these three groups were compared all evaluated electrolytes presented significant differences and hyperphosphatemia of patients prepared with sodium phosphate solution was the most important of then. None of these differences was related to clinic effects.
Bowel preparation; Sodium phosphate; Mannitol; Sodium picosulphate