What is childhood constipation?
Functional childhood constipation is a common problem. The term functional constipation is used when no underlying organic cause can be identified for the symptoms. Symptoms typically include decreased frequency of bowel movements, faecal incontinence and a change in consistency of stools. Despite the widespread use of laxatives by health professionals to manage constipation in children, there has been a long standing lack of evidence to support this practice.
Review question
The primary objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and side effects of osmotic and stimulant laxatives used for the treatment of functional childhood constipation.
What are osmotic and stimulant laxatives?
Osmotic laxatives are medications that draw water into the stool, resulting in softer stools and more frequent, easier to pass bowel movements. Some commonly used osmotic laxatives include polyethylene glycol (PEG), milk of magnesia, and lactulose. Stimulant laxatives induce bowel movements by increasing the contraction of muscles in the intestines. Examples of stimulant laxatives include aloe, cascara, senna compounds, bisacodyl, and castor oil.
What did the researchers investigate?
The researchers studied whether osmotic and stimulant laxatives are effective for the treatment of childhood constipation whether these medications cause any harms (side effects). The investigators searched the medical literature extensively up to 10 March June 2016.
What did the researchers find?
This review included 25 studies with a total of 2310 children that compared ten different agents to either placebo (inactive medications) or each other. Many of the studies were small in size and were judged to be of poor or unclear quality. The results of this review suggest that PEG preparations may increase the frequency of bowel movements in constipated children. There is evidence from one study that suggests that high dose PEG (0.7 g/kg) may be superior to low dose PEG (0.3 g/kg) for increasing the frequency of bowel movements in constipated children. The rates of minor side effects were generally lower compared to other agents. Common side effects included flatulence, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea and headache. There was also some evidence that liquid paraffin (mineral oil) increased the frequency of bowel movements in constipated children. Common side effects with liquid paraffin included abdominal pain, distention and watery stools. There was no evidence to suggest that lactulose is superior to the other agents studied, although there were no trials comparing it to placebo (a fake medicine such as a sugar pill). These studies were relatively short in duration and so it is difficult to assess the long term effectiveness of these agents for the treatment of childhood constipation. Long term effectiveness is important, given the often chronic nature of this problem in children.
The results of the review should be interpreted with caution due to quality issues in the included studies. As such, the strength of our conclusions is extremely limited and more research is needed. Key questions that need addressing include the safety of liquid paraffin, given its apparent effectiveness, but limited investigation. In particular, future research should compare liquid paraffin to PEG. The optimal dose of PEG warrants further investigation. The role of PEG for the long term management of chronic constipation also needs further investigation to allow research to better inform actual clinical practice. There is a lack of studies comparing lactulose with placebo.
The pooled analyses suggest that PEG preparations may be superior to placebo, lactulose and milk of magnesia for childhood constipation. GRADE analyses indicated that the overall quality of the evidence for the primary outcome (number of stools per week) was low or very low due to sparse data, inconsistency (heterogeneity), and high risk of bias in the studies in the pooled analyses. Thus, the results of the pooled analyses should be interpreted with caution because of quality and methodological concerns, as well as clinical heterogeneity, and short follow-up. There is also evidence suggesting the efficacy of liquid paraffin (mineral oil). There is no evidence to demonstrate the superiority of lactulose when compared to the other agents studied, although there is a lack of placebo controlled studies. Further research is needed to investigate the long term use of PEG for childhood constipation, as well as the role of liquid paraffin. The optimal dose of PEG also warrants further investigation.
Constipation within childhood is an extremely common problem. Despite the widespread use of osmotic and stimulant laxatives by health professionals to manage constipation in children, there has been a long standing paucity of high quality evidence to support this practice.
We set out to evaluate the efficacy and safety of osmotic and stimulant laxatives used to treat functional childhood constipation.
We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the Cochrane IBD Group Specialized Trials Register from inception to 10 March 2016. There were no language restrictions. We also searched the references of all included studies, personal contacts and drug companies to identify studies.
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) which compared osmotic or stimulant laxatives to placebo or another intervention, with participants aged 0 to 18 years old were considered for inclusion. The primary outcome was frequency of defecation. Secondary endpoints included faecal incontinence, disimpaction, need for additional therapies and adverse events.
Relevant papers were identified and two authors independently assessed the eligibility of trials, extracted data and assessed methodological quality using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. The primary outcome was frequency of defecation. Secondary endpoints included faecal incontinence, disimpaction, need for additional therapies and adverse events. For continuous outcomes we calculated the mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using a fixed-effect model. For dichotomous outcomes we calculated the risk ratio (RR) and 95% CI using a fixed-effect model. The Chi2 and I2 statistics were used to assess statistical heterogeneity. A random-effects model was used in situations of unexplained heterogeneity. We assessed the overall quality of the evidence supporting the primary and secondary outcomes using the GRADE criteria.
Twenty-five RCTs (2310 participants) were included in the review. Fourteen studies were judged to be at high risk of bias due to lack of blinding, incomplete outcome data and selective reporting. Meta-analysis of two studies (101 patients) comparing polyethylene glycol (PEG) with placebo showed a significantly increased number of stools per week with PEG (MD 2.61 stools per week, 95% CI 1.15 to 4.08). Common adverse events in the placebo-controlled studies included flatulence, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhoea and headache. Participants receiving high dose PEG (0.7 g/kg) had significantly more stools per week than low dose PEG (0.3 g/kg) participants (1 study, 90 participants, MD 1.30, 95% 0.76 to 1.84). Meta-analysis of 6 studies with 465 participants comparing PEG with lactulose showed a significantly greater number of stools per week with PEG (MD 0.70 , 95% CI 0.10 to 1.31), although follow-up was short. Patients who received PEG were significantly less likely to require additional laxative therapies. Eighteen per cent (27/154) of PEG patients required additional therapies compared to 31% (47/150) of lactulose patients (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.83). No serious adverse events were reported with either agent. Common adverse events in these studies included diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and pruritis ani. Meta-analysis of 3 studies with 211 participants comparing PEG with milk of magnesia showed that the stools per week were significantly greater with PEG (MD 0.69, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.89). However, the magnitude of this difference was quite small and may not be clinically significant. One child was noted to be allergic to PEG, but there were no other serious adverse events reported. One study found a significant difference in stools per week favouring milk of magnesia over lactulose (MD -1.51, 95% CI -2.63 to -0.39, 50 patients), Meta-analysis of 2 studies with 287 patients comparing liquid paraffin (mineral oil) with lactulose revealed a relatively large statistically significant difference in the number of stools per week favouring liquid paraffin (MD 4.94 , 95% CI 4.28 to 5.61). No serious adverse events were reported. Adverse events included abdominal pain, distention and watery stools. No statistically significant differences in the number of stools per week were found between PEG and enemas (1 study, 90 patients, MD 1.00, 95% CI -1.58 to 3.58), dietary fibre mix and lactulose (1 study, 125 patients, P = 0.481), senna and lactulose (1 study, 21 patients, P > 0.05), lactitol and lactulose (1 study, 51 patients, MD -0.80, 95% CI -2.63 to 1.03), hydrolyzed guar gum and lactulose (1 study, 61 patients, MD 1.00, 95% CI -1.80 to 3.80), PEG and flixweed (1 study, 109 patients, MD 0.00, 95% CI -0.33 to 0.33), PEG and dietary fibre (1 study, 83 patients, MD 0.20, 95% CI -0.64 to 1.04), and PEG and liquid paraffin (2 studies, 261 patients, MD 0.35, 95% CI -0.24 to 0.95).