Bowel Preparation for Colonoscopy

7 days before the examination:
• Stop taking iron preparation.
• Persons taking antiplatelet agents - e.g. Aspirin, Acard, Ticlid - should discontinue them upon a prior consultation with the prescribing physician.
• Persons taking anticoagulants - e.g. Sintrom, Syncumar, Acenocoumarol, Warfarin - should contact their attending physician and change the drugs to low-molecular-weight heparin.

4 days before the examination:
• Avoid eating raw fruit and vegetables, particularly those with fine seeds, e.g. grapes, raspberries, currants, strawberries, kiwi, figs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and the preserves made from them.
• Avoid eating beetroot, wholegrain bread, poppy seed.

The day before the examination:
• Breakfast should be light and not contain carbonated drinks or milk. 
• Small lunch is allowed in the early afternoon. This should consist of semi-liquid and easily absorbed produce (e.g., kissel, custard, gruel). Dinner should not be eaten.

On the day of the procedure:
• If colonoscopy is scheduled for the afternoon/evening, drink 1L of still water with 1 Fortrans sachet dissolved in it, in the morning of the day of the examination.
• If the procedure is to be performed under general anaesthesia - do not eat anything 8 hours before the examination. Do not drink anything either 6 h before the examination.
• 1-2 hours before the scheduled procedure, an enema preparation is necessary.

Drugs
• On the day of examination, take all the routinely taken drugs. The only exception are those lowering the blood glucose level used by diabetics - the manner of taking such drugs should be defined by the referring physician.

During the procedure:

• Inform about sudden complaints

After the procedure:

If the examination is performed under general anaesthesia: 
• the patient stays in the clinic for approx. 2 hours after the procedure
• the patient should leave the facility under the care of an accompanying person,
• the patient should not drive vehicles for 12 hours after the procedure.

                                       

References:

1. http://www.luxmed.pl/en/hospital/toolbox/endoscopy/preparation-for-colonoscopy.html
2. http://www.bmc.org/Documents/bmc_Colonoscopy_GoLytely.pdf