Colon Hydrotherapy (CHT) is an old form of complementary medicine, widely used in former times. Nowadays, due to lack of evidence its use is criticised. The intention of CHT is the cleansing of the colon using a closed inflow/ outflow system where tempered water is administered into the colon of the patient under the control of a therapist.

A systematic literature search identified only one prospective, controlled trial of poor quality which measures the effectiveness of CHT in patients with obstructed defecation disorders compared to standard therapy. Outcomes were measured by the “Modified Wexner Score”, which mean decreased from 8 (range 2-14) to 4.5 (range1-8) in the CHT group and from 11.6 (range 6-18) to 9.2 (range 1-16) in the control group. Thus the authors concluded that CHT is superior to standard therapy. Overall, CHT can be constituted as being safe. Due to the fact that the evidence about CHT is very limited, further RCTs of good quality are needed to obtain a clear picture if CHT is effective and safe for obstructed defecation disorders. .