Castor oil or senna preparation before colonoscopy for inactive chronic ulcerative colitis

Few clinically apparent clinical relapses of colitis occurred in 340 patients with previously extensive ulcerative colitis in an inactive phase submitted to total colonoscopy for dysplasia screening after bowel preparation with castor oil or senna. A prospective trial in 46 such patients showed both preparations to be equally safe and effective. Minor untreated disturbances of bowel habit occurred in 14 patients (30%), and three patients (7%) required a short period of oral corticosteroids. No patient with inactive colitis in either the retrospective series or the trial group had a serious exacerbation of colitis as a result of the bowel preparation, which was considered necessary and clinically justified for the purposes of cancer screening.