Effectiveness of magnesium citrate as preparation for capsule endoscopy: a randomized, prospective, open-label,...

Capsule endoscopy (CE) is effective in the detection of small bowel lesions. Many studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of preparations in improving diagnostic yield, but an effective method has yet to be confirmed. We used magnesium citrate as preparation for CE and evaluated its effectiveness.

50 patients who underwent CE were randomly allocated to two groups - group A (preparation provided) and group B (no preparation). Group A were administered 34 g of magnesium citrate at 8 p.m. the night before the examination. Group B were not administered a laxative.

The cleansing efficacy score was 24.4 ± 4.4 points for group A and 22.9 ± 4.4 points for group B, with no significant difference between groups. No significant difference was seen in the large bowel arrival rate between groups: 14 cases (63.6%) for group A and 16 cases (72.7%) for group B.

In this study, superiority was not seen for cleansing efficacy, large bowel arrival rate for the preparation method involving administration of hypertonic MC solution 12 h prior to the procedure.