[Conservative treatment of children constipation with Macrogol 4,000]

Macrogol 4,000 is one of the new generation's osmotic laxatives. It is constituted by a heavy molecular weight polymer without additional salts. In most of patients Macrogol 4,000 shows its efficacy in 48 hours from the beginning of treatment. Daily evacuations has been reported after first week therapy with an improvement in quality of life. The aim of this observational study was to demonstrate the efficacy of Macrogol 4,000 in the treatment of constipation in children.

The effect of Macrogol 4,000 was assessed in 120 children affected by constipation treated with therapeutic doses of Macrogol 4,000. The study period ranged from September 2006 to March 2007. The data analysis was collected with the evaluations concerning clinical examination and the consultation of daily diaries assembled by parents, tracking stooling pattern; in case of loosing contacts with the patient, a telephonic survey has been carried out. The child with symptoms improvement, i.e. reduction of the pain during defecation, daily spontaneous evacuations and better stool consistence, were considered ''normal''.

Of the 120 patients, 89 returned to the clinical follow-up, while the remaining 31, who missed the follow-up, has been contacted by telephone. To the final analysis, 103 patients (85.8%) have had a normalization of the clinical symptoms, 9 patients (7.5%) have refused Macrogol 4,000 for the unpleasant flavour, 8 patients (6.7%) did not have any improvement from the treatment.

The results of this observational study suggest that Macrogol 4,000 could be very useful to treat pediatric patients with constipation, also those affected by neuronal intestinal displasia (NID) type B.