Whole bowel irrigation in children: prolonged post-irrigation diarrhea due to isotonic saline.

Whole bowel irrigation (WBI) was performed in 60 children aged two to 16 yrs (mean 5.1 +/- 0.5 yrs) in preparation for surgery (n: 59) and rectoscopy (n: 1). Isotonic saline (n: 43) and lactated Ringer's solutions (n: 17) were infused for irrigation. Vital signs remained stable during the procedure. Negligible electrolytic alterations were encountered. In general, WBI was well tolerated by all the patients. Two (3.3%) patients had abdominal cramps, vomiting was observed in nine (15%) and edema developed in one (16%). The results of the preparation were assessed as satisfactory in 45 cases (75%), adequate in 10 cases (16.6%) and poor in 5 cases (8.3%). Diarrhea, as a complication of saline, has not been reported previously in the literature, but was observed in 32 of our cases (74.4%), and lasted 2-5 days (mean 3.38 +/- 0.7 days) after irrigation. In addition, it is noteworthy that bile-stained intraluminal clear fluid was seen only in the patients who had been irrigated with lactated Ringer's solution. Our research related to this observation is continuing.