Palatability of colonic lavage solution is improved by the addition of artificially sweetened flavored drink mixes

A frequent complaint of patients asked to drink polyethylene glycol (PE.G) colonic lavage solution is the salty flavor. This often results in failure to ingest the entire 4 liters of the solution and compromises bowel cleansing. The purpose of this study was to determine systematically whether the addition of a flavored drink mix sweetened with aspartame to the PE.G lavage solution would improve palatability without significantly altering the osmolality of the solution. Eighty-seven (87) staff volunteers participated in a taste test of PE.G lavage solutions containing varying amounts of commercially available drink mixes. The solution containing two packages of lemon-flavored KoolAid drink mix sweetened with aspartame was significantly more palatable than the others (p < 0.005), while osmolality remained within the range specified by the manufacturer of Colyte.