Using an enema during colonoscopy to clean the right side of the bowel
Tests a sodium phosphate enema during colonoscopy in adults having routine bowel examinations.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Westmead Hospital
- Where
- Auburn and Westmead, AustraliaSee the 2 sites
- Trial code
- Registry title
- Right Colon Enema to Improve Bowel Preparation Quality During Colonoscopy
- Status
- Not yet recruiting
- People taking part
- 320 people, planned
- Started
- 1 Nov 2026
- Expected to end
- 1 Nov 2028
- Type of study
- Interventional, 2 groupsOne group gets a placebo (a dummy treatment), for comparison.
- Treatments tested
- Sodium phosphate enema
- Water instillation
- Record updated
- 24 September 2026
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for adults having a planned full colonoscopy. It tests whether an enema given during the procedure makes the right side of the bowel cleaner.
- Age
- 18 to 85 years
- Sex
- All sexes can join.
- Earlier treatment
- Must not have had a sodium phosphate enema in the previous 24 hours.
Main reasons for not taking part
- Emergency colonoscopy
- Active colitis from known inflammatory bowel disease in the examined part of the bowel
- Familial polyposis syndromes
- Pregnancy
- Kidney failure (eGFR less than 30 mL/min)
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 13 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- Age 18 to 85 years
- Undergoing elective full colonoscopy for any indication
- Successful caecal intubation achieved during the procedure, confirmed prior to randomisation
- Able to provide written informed consent
Who cannot take part
- Prior major right hemicolectomy or altered anatomy preventing standard right colon assessment
- Known inflammatory bowel disease with active colitis in the examined segment
- Familial polyposis syndromes
- Known obstructing colorectal malignancy precluding safe progression or adequate examination
- Renal failure (eGFR less than 30 mL/min)
- Previous sodium phosphate enema within the preceding 24 hours
- Contraindication to sodium phosphate administration as determined by the treating endoscopist
- Emergency colonoscopy
- Pregnancy
Check if you might fit
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 18 and 85 years old?
Where in Australia
- Auburn HospitalAuburn, AustraliaContact: Nicholas G Burgess, MBChB,FRACPNo longer taking part
- Westmead HospitalWestmead, AustraliaContact: Nicholas G Burgess, MBChB,FRACPNo longer taking part
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
Colonoscopy is a test that lets doctors look inside the large bowel to find and remove growths called polyps, which can develop into bowel cancer. Before the test, people take a bowel preparation to empty the bowel. Even so, the right side of the bowel is often not clean enough, and polyps there can be missed.
Read full original descriptionShow less
This study is testing whether giving an enema (a small amount of fluid passed into the bowel) during the colonoscopy makes the right side of the bowel cleaner. Participants having a routine colonoscopy at Westmead Hospital or Auburn Hospital will be assigned by chance to either receive the enema during the procedure or to have their colonoscopy in the usual way. Neither group takes any extra preparation at home.
The researchers will compare how clean the right side of the bowel is in each group, using a standard scoring system, and will also look at how many polyps are found. The aim is to find out whether this simple step improves the quality of colonoscopy.
The 2 groups in the trial
- Intra-procedural right colon Fleet enemaTreatment being tested
Immediately after confirmed caecal intubation and randomisation, with the colonoscope tip in the right colon, a Fleet sodium phosphate enema is instilled into the right colon through the colonoscope working channel. The right colon is then refilled to the hepatic flexure using the foot-pump water jet. The fluid is not suctioned; the right lower quadrant is agitated by manual percussion. The lumen is re-insufflated with CO2 and the scope returned to the caecum before withdrawal begins, allowing the instilled solution and mobilised faecal residue to be carried distally through the transverse and left colon.
Treatment: Sodium phosphate enema
- Water controlPlacebo, for comparison
Colonoscopy lets doctors look inside the large bowel to find and remove growths called polyps. Before the test, people take a bowel preparation to empty the bowel, but the right side of the bowel is often still not clean enough, and polyps there can be missed. This study is testing whether a small enema given through the colonoscope into the right side of the bowel, during the procedure, makes the whole bowel cleaner. Once the camera reaches the far end of the bowel, participants are assigned by chance to receive either the enema or the same volume of water. Everything else about the procedure is the same in both groups, and no extra preparation is taken at home. The recordings of each procedure are reviewed by independent experts who do not know which group the participant was in, and who score how clean each part of the bowel was. The researchers will also compare how many polyps were found in each group.
Treatment: Water instillation
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- RIGHT-CLEAN Trial: A Multi-centre Randomised Controlled Trial of Intra-procedural Right Colon Enema Versus no Enema to Improve Total Colonic Bowel Preparation at Colonoscopy.
- Plain-language title
- Using an enema during colonoscopy to clean the right side of the bowelGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 13 November 2026.
- Fit questions
- Built from NCT07813013, who can take part
- Record updated
- 24 September 2026