Is Polyethylene Glycol Safe For An Elderly Patient During A Colonoscopy?

Posted on Tue, 2 Jan 2024

Question: I am a 71 year old woman in good health, on no prescribed meds. I'm also a retired ICU nurse. Five days ago I had a colonoscopy, and the same diverticulosis found five years ago was noted. Thirty hours later I had a severe band of pain under the breasts and between my scapula which lasted maybe five minutes, no other cardiac signs. My stomach feels tender, slightly nauseous, no appetite, intermittent right sided pain especially when lying down, two bowel movements since the procedure, very little gas passed rectally. Is this due to over inflation of the bowel? My pulse and BP are up somewhat elevated, may be stress. I'm not short of breath, sweating, severely nauseous, but the low grade pressure in the chest and stomach are worrying. I'm
5 foot 3 inches and 132 pounds. Just had a full physical, labs, ECG and all normal. Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:

Please go through the detailed answer.

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

As you are a retired medical professional you may understand that polyethylene glycol given for preparation of colonoscopy is an osmotic laxative which works by absorbing water from intestines. This disrupts the normal good flora of the gut.

In old patients, this creates more problem. Colonoscope being an invasive machine may cause mild inflammation in intestines hence with the movement of intestine there would be pain.

I would suggest you take a probiotic VSL#3 for 5 days with B complex.

An external .enzyme supplement should be taken.
Apart from that, an antispasmodic anti-inflammatory could be taken sos for pain.

Do this for 5 days.
Eat very light food.
Take lots of yogurts.
Tell me how you feel in 5 days.

Hope I have answered your query.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Ramesh Kumar, Gastroenterologist

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana