Polyethylene glycol versus vegetable oil based bisacodyl suppositories to initiate side-lying bowel care: a clinical trial in persons with spinal cord injury.

Introduction: Neurogenic bowel dysfunction resulting from spinal cord injury (SCI) frequently requires bowel care (BC) with stimulant suppositories for initiation of effective defecation. The excessive time required for BC and bowel complications have limited quality of life after SCI.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that: the time required for bowel care with bisacodyl suppositories can be reduced by substituting a polyethylene glycol base (PGB) for the traditional hydrogenated vegetable oil base (HVB) in the suppository.