Abstract
The low residue diet is commonly recommended for pre-colonoscopy bowel preparation as well as in the management of some gastrointestinal conditions including inflammatory bowel disease. There is no objective measurement for residue, resulting in poor standardisation of a low residue diet. This review examines the efficacy of a low residue diet in the management of gastrointestinal conditions. A literature search was conducted in Medline and the Cochrane Library, and eight randomised controlled trials with human subjects met the inclusion criteria. Six studied the low residue diet for pre-colonoscopy bowel preparation, the other two were conducted in Crohn's disease and post-gynaecological surgery, respectively. The low residue diet was comparable to the clear liquid diet for bowel preparation without increased side-effects. Post-gynaecological surgery, early feeding using low residue diet decreased nausea without increasing gastrointestinal symptoms when compared to the traditional feeding method. There was limited evidence on the advantage of a low residue diet over a normal diet in the management of acute, non-stenosing Crohn's disease. More rigorous studies are required to evaluate the efficacy of the low residue diet for the management of gastrointestinal conditions. In addition, substituting a low residue diet with a low fibre diet would be a more measurable and objective method to standardise guidelines both for research and therapy.