Evaluation of Possible Factors That Influence Bowel Cleanliness

Abstract

Introduction: Bowel cleanliness is one of the most important determinants of the quality of colonoscopic procedures.There are several scales to assess the state of bowel cleanliness.The most commonly used among these is Boston Bowel Preparation Scale(BBPS). Methods: The study included 53 individuals who presented to our endoscopy unit for colonoscopy. All patients cleansed their bowels with Sennoside A+B calcium solutions and sodium dihydrogen phosphate+disodium hydrogen phosphate enemas.Those who did not use their bowel cleansing medications properly, or those who used a different bowel cleansing procedure were excluded from the study.For all patients,colonoscopic procedures were evaluated by the same endoscopist.The study aims to determine the factors that can possibly influence bowel cleanliness,a prerequisite for a good colonoscopic examination,by examining the data obtained from routine practice conditions. Results: Mean age of participants was 45 years.Regarding the age distribution, 54.7% of individuals that underwent colonoscopy were aged between 18-45 years, whereas 45.3% were at or above 46 years old. Regarding distribution of sex, 60.4% of participants were male.Colonoscopy indications were examined under four categories as diarrhea,constipation,colorectal cancer screening and miscellaneous.In 73.6% of the patients,terminal ileum was intubated. Regarding BBPS scores that was used to assess bowel cleanliness, mean total BBPS score was 6.53; mean LC BBPS score was 2.23; mean TC BBPS score was 2.45; and mean RC BBPS score was 1.81. BBPS scores were evaluated in two groups based on patient age as 18-45 years and above 45 years; and accordingly, there was no statistically significant difference between these two age groups regarding bowel cleanliness.Regarding comparison of the sexes, the relationships between BBPS and height, weight, BMI and WC were evaluated with Pearson's correlation analysis; and accordingly, there was no significant association of BBPS score with these parameters (p>0.05) Conclusion: Based on the rationale that a good bowel cleansing is a prerequisite for a good colonoscopic examination, we aimed to evaluate the factors that may possibly influence bowel cleanliness in the present study. We found no statistically significant relationship of bowel cleanliness as assessed with BBPS with age,gender,BMI,WC,presence of accompanying disease,previous colonoscopy experience,gastroscopy performed concurrent with the colonoscopy or colonoscopy indications.