A Trial of Three Types of Enemas Used to Treat Functional Constipation in Children
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01823848. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Three Types of Enemas Used to Treat Functional Constipation in Children
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Functional constipation is extremely common in children and is defined as painful, hard stools or firm stools for twice or less per week. Functional constipation accounts for 3% of general pediatric visits and up to 25% of pediatric gastroenterology visits. Constipation and fecal impaction can lead to a range of symptoms including decreased appetite, vomiting, and abdominal pain frequently resulting in Emergency Department (ED) presentation. In contrast to the outpatient setting where diet and oral medications work well to relieve symptoms related to functional constipation, ED management requires an approach with quicker results. For immediate relief of symptoms, disimpaction via enema use may be better than polyethylene glycol (PEG) 3350 for children. However, the type of enema to be used is not well studied. Currently, any patient presenting to the ED with a presumed diagnosis of abdominal pain due to functional constipation receives an oral dose of PEG and one of the following three types of enemas (based on the ED treating attending's discretion): phosphate or Fleets enema, normal saline enema, or mineral oil enema. There is no evidence in the literature that demonstrates any difference in the effectiveness of each of these enemas. The investigators propose a randomized control trial of the three types of pediatric enemas readily used in our ED to determine the best approach. There will be three arms within this study: a) PEG plus phosphate enema b) PEG plus normal saline enema and c) PEG plus mineral oil enema. The physicians enrolling patients will not be the treating physicians. The four principal investigators (blinded to the type of enema being used), following appropriate informed consent, will obtain pain scores (Faces Pain Scale - Revised) pre- and post-administration of each of the three treatments listed above in order to determine the best enema to use in children 4-12 years of age. Other outcomes to be analyzed will include the patient's weight pre- and post-administration of the enema, satisfaction ratings on a visual analog scale from the treating physician (who will also be blinded), and parental surveys on the day of administration and 3-5 days following discharge. Data analysis for pain scores will be completed with repeated measures anova. Categorical values will be compared using Chi Square analysis and continuous variables will be compared using parametric statistics.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01823848
- Recruitment status
- Terminated
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 40 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 4 Years to 12 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Mar 31, 2013
- Primary completion
- Nov 30, 2017
- Completion
- Nov 30, 2017
- Last update posted
- Oct 31, 2023
2013 – 2017
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children's Hospital Los Angeles | Los Angeles | California | 90027 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01823848, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Oct 31, 2023 · Synced Sep 7, 2026
Related: full search, browse by condition, browse by drug or therapy, browse by sponsor, browse by U.S. city.
Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01823848 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.