Introduction: Adequate bowel preparation is a vital determinant for the success of colonoscopy. However, individuals who undergo bowel preparation for colonoscopy can experience major discomfort. To solve this problem, adding prucalopride to the prepared solution may reduce intake volume, decreasing discomfort and side effects. We performed meta-analyses and systematic review of available randomized controlled trials.
Methods: Meta-analyses were conducted to evaluate the overall relative risk and 95% confidence intervals in the combined studies for the assessment of primary outcome, which is the efficacy of bowel preparation with the addition of prucalopride.
Results: Four randomized controlled trials involving 581 patients were included. When data were pooled for all patients in two non-inferiority studies, no significant difference in the quality of bowel preparation was observed between patients receiving prucalopride plus bowel preparation solution at a lower volume and those receiving the existing solution (relative risk: 0.94; 95% confidence interval: 0.86-1.03). The effects of prucalopride on acceptability, adverse events, adenoma detection rate, and polyp detection rate did not significantly differ from those of traditional solutions.
Conclusions: The combination of prucalopride and bowel preparation solution at a lower volume has similar effects on bowel preparation, and its use did not increase the occurrence of adverse effects.
Keywords: Bowel preparation; Polyethylene glycol; Prucalopride.