The effects of an abdominal vibration stimulation program on the quality of bowel preparation in patients undergoing screening and surveillance colonoscopy: A general surgeons blinded, randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Effective colonoscopy is considered accurate and safe when there is good quality bowel preparation. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an abdominal vibration stimulation program on the quality of bowel preparation in patients undergoing screening and surveillance colonoscopy.

Design: This study was a single-centre, randomised, controlled trial.

Methods: The participants consisted of 72 patients who received elective in-patient screening and surveillance colonoscopy at a tertiary hospital in central Thailand. Patients were randomly assigned to two groups: an experimental group (n=38) and a control group (n=34). Both groups received the same bowel cleansing regimen of 90 ml split-dose sodium phosphate solution. The experimental group received the abdominal vibration stimulation. General surgeons, who were blinded to which group participants were assigned, evaluated the bowel preparation of all participants using the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS).

Results: The experimental group showed a statistically significant higher mean score on the BBPS than the control group (p=0.049). The BBPS score for the colon and rectum as a whole of the experimental group was 7.21 ± 1.80 and for the control group was 6.29 ± 2.08.

Conclusion: The addition of abdominal vibration stimulation can improve the quality of bowel preparation in patients undergoing screening and surveillance colonoscopy.