An ideal bowel preparation should have many attributes, including the ability to reliably empty the colon in a rapid fashion, without causing any gross or histologic alteration of colonic mucosa, shifts in fluids and electrolytes, or patient discomfort, and it should be relatively inexpensive.
This article discusses quality measures for bowel preparation, as well as various tools to measure the quality of bowel preparation and ways to improve it. This review is meant to provide gastroenterologists and endoscopists with strategies and best practices to get their patients to optimize bowel preparation.