Description
Other Patient Experience
How Taste, Texture and Tolerability Affect Enterography Prep
In small bowel imaging, distention is the name of the game
Unfortunately, in order to get the desired bowel distention for imaging, patients must ingest a large volume of fluid: usually 1350 – 1500ML, approximately 44 – 51 fluid ounces, within a 45 minute time-frame.
To complicate matters, many patients in enterography are instructed to drink a 1% barium sulfate suspension which has a viscosity of 80.5cP in order to distend the small bowel.
Viscosity is a measure of a fluid’s resistance to flow. The higher the viscosity, the more resistant to flow a fluid will be. For comparison purposes, water, arguably the most drinkable fluid for humans, has a viscosity of .899cP. A fluid with a viscosity of 80.5cP has a viscosity closer to light-weight cooking oils – corn oil has a viscosity of 72cP, olive oil a viscosity of 84cP.
