Polyethylene glycol solution in subgroups of chronic constipation patients: experience in obstructed defaecation.

Low doses of polyethylene glycol solutions were administered in patients with long-standing constipation and in a subgroup with severe symptoms of obstructed defaecation and in whom anorectal surgery was considered. During treatment all patients with constipation improved and nineteen of the twenty-one patients with dyschezia became asymptomatic. Only two patients were submitted to surgery.