Comparative Effectiveness of Split-Dose Colonoscopy Bowel Preparation Regimens

January 22, 2025 updated by: VA Office of Research and Development
From the patients' perspective, the most formidable part of the colonoscopy experience is the process of bowel cleansing. A poorly tolerated bowel preparation regimen often leads to incompletion of scheduled colonoscopies which in turn undermines the effectiveness of colonoscopy, increases cost, and decreases patient satisfaction. The current standard bowel preparation in the VA is of larger volume and less palatable than another commonly used bowel preparation regimen. The investigators propose to compare these two commonly used bowel preparations with respect to the overall completion rate of scheduled colonoscopies in a real-world VA practice setting. The results of the study can be immediately applied to maximize the effectiveness of colonoscopy and increase patient satisfaction in the VA.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Anticipated Impacts on Veterans Health Care: by identifying a colonoscopy bowel preparation regimen which is the most effective in real-world VA practice and can be immediately implemented on a VA-wide scale, the proposed study will maximize the effectiveness of colonoscopy in reducing colorectal cancer (CRC) risk among Veterans, increase Veteran satisfaction, and reduce VA healthcare cost. Background: CRC is a leading cause of cancer-related death among Veterans. Colonoscopy can effectively reduce CRC incidence and mortality. However, non-adherence to screening colonoscopy substantially undermines this benefit. Existing evidence indicates that a disagreeable bowel preparation is a leading barrier to completing a colonoscopy from the patients' perspective. The taste and the volume of the bowel preparation determine patient tolerability and compliance to the preparation instructions, which in turn affects the incompletion (e.g., cancellation/no-show/reschedule) rate of scheduled colonoscopies as well as the effectiveness of the completed colonoscopies and patient satisfaction. The two most commonly used preparations currently in the US are the split-dose 4L polyethylene glycol (PEG) and the split-dose 2L MiraLAX/Gatorade preparations. While a high-volume regimen may in theory be more effective than a lower volume one, it may be associated with lower tolerability and adherence in real-world practice. Three small trials have compared these two preparations. However, data from these explanatory trials cannot inform policy decisions because they were conducted under artificial conditions, restricted among narrow patient populations, and most importantly not designed to capture the full impact of bowel preparation on the completion rate or effectiveness of colonoscopy. To address this critical knowledge gap, the investigators are proposing a pragmatic trial to determine the optimal split-dose bowel preparation in the general Veteran population. Objectives: to compare the real-world effectiveness of the two most commonly used split-dose colonoscopy bowel preparation regimens in the US (i.e., 4L PEG and 2L MiraLAX/Gatorade) with respect to the completion rate of scheduled colonoscopies, adenoma detection rate and secondarily preparation quality, cancellation/no-show rate and patient-oriented outcomes (e.g., willingness to repeat the preparation).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

2239

Phase

  • Phase 4

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

    • Pennsylvania
      • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104-4551
        • Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • > 18 years of age, and
  • being scheduled for outpatient elective screening, surveillance or diagnostic colonoscopies, and
  • the provider ordering the colonoscopy giving permission to enroll the patient.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who are <18 years
  • undergoing inpatient colonoscopy
  • those with contra-indications to receiving the standard 4L PEG-ELS colonoscopy bowel preparation (e.g., allergy to PEG) will be excluded
  • Those with a preference for a specific bowel preparation will be excluded.

    • The investigators are excluding inpatient colonoscopies because they account for a very small fraction of the total colonoscopies performed.
    • Also, inpatient colonoscopies are often performed for urgent reasons such that rapid bowel preparation procedures are followed.
  • In addition, because the objective of inpatient colonoscopy is often not to look for small polyps, the threshold for "adequate" bowel preparation quality might be different from that for outpatient procedures.
  • In addition, for patients undergoing more than 1 colonoscopy during the study period, only their first colonoscopy will be included in the primary analysis.
  • Patients who are undergoing a repeat colonoscopy for to a recent inadequate colonoscopy examination with poor bowel preparation will be excluded.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Golytely
4-L split-dose Golytely bowel prep
4-L split dose Golytely is the current standard prep at the VA
Experimental: Miralax-Gatorade prep
2-L split-dose Miralax-Gatorade bowel prep
2-L split-dose Miralax-Gatorade bowel prep for colonoscopy

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Colonoscopy Completion Rate
Time Frame: This outcome is determined within 1 month after colonoscopy
The completion rate of scheduled colonoscopy will be defined as the proportion of patients who show up for their scheduled colonoscopy and have endoscopist-rated "adequate" bowel preparation quality, among those scheduled for a colonoscopy.
This outcome is determined within 1 month after colonoscopy
Population Level Adenoma Detection Rate (ADR)
Time Frame: within 1 month of colonoscopy
the ADR is estimated as the proportion of patients with at least one adenoma detected among all patients scheduled for colonoscopy.
within 1 month of colonoscopy

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Cancellation or No-show in Each Bowel Prep Arm
Time Frame: within 1 month after colonoscopy
The proportion of patients who cancel or no-show in each group.
within 1 month after colonoscopy
Adequate Bowel Prep Quality
Time Frame: within 1 month after the colonoscopy
this is a binary indictor based on endoscopist rating of excellent or good quality bowel preparation
within 1 month after the colonoscopy

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patients With Inadequate Bowel Preparation Who Are Recommended to Have Earlier-than-usual Follow-up Colonoscopy
Time Frame: within 1 month after colonoscopy
patients with inadequate bowel preparation who are recommended to have earlier-than-usual follow-up colonoscopy
within 1 month after colonoscopy
Hyponatremia
Time Frame: within 6 months after colonoscopy
Hyponatremia
within 6 months after colonoscopy
Renal Failure
Time Frame: within 6 months of colonoscopy
renal failure documented in CPRS
within 6 months of colonoscopy

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Yu-Xiao Yang, MD MSCE, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

  • Comparative Effectiveness of Split-Dose Colonoscopy Bowel Preparation Regimens: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial Yang, Yu-Xiao, Dawei Xie, Raphael Rivero, Michael W. Bond, Jibreel Damisa, Qiao Lu, Nabeel H. Khan Gastroenterology, 2024-05-18, Volume 166, Issue 5, Pages S-353-S-353

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 13, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 30, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

June 30, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 26, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 29, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

October 2, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 22, 2025

Last Verified

January 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IIR 15-346

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

Yes

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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