A study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology compared what bowel preparations were best tolerated and most effective.
Researchers reviewed 4,339 outpatient colonoscopies from a large medical center. They measured bowel cleansing quality using the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale.
What they found:
1. Magnesium citrate, MiraLAX with Gatorade, MoviPrep, OsmoPrep, Prepopik/Clenpiq and Suprep all had higher tolerability scores than GoLytely.
2. Suprep, MoviPrep and MiraLax with Gatorade had the higher Boston Bowel Preparation Scores than GoLytely. The other preps were all similar.
3. Spilt-prep dosing led to better cleansing, but men, opioid and tricyclic antidepressant users, diabetes and cirrhosis patients all had worse cleansing scores.
Researchers concluded, "In this prospective, real-world comparative effectiveness study of available bowel preps, we found that MiraLax with Gatorade, MoviPrep, and Suprep were prospectively associated with superior tolerability and bowel cleansing."