First of all, I know, there are other topics about (custom)colon tubes and how to insert them etc, but since my post will be with a different angle/viewpoint 😉 I decided to make a new topic after all...
The thing is, I noticed the usual length of the colon tubes in Europe maxes out at 40cm(slightly less then 16 inch) when you really look around you might find 50cm(just above 19 inch).
Outside Europe I see commonly longer colon tubes of 30inch (or more)Sure there are also shorter ones like 20-21 inch.
Since I wanted to know why there seem to be a different opinion on how long a colon tube 'needs' to be I searched some more and came up with a text (posted more below) generally used in Europe, standard flexible-rubber colon tubes are 30 or 40 cm long that did at least support my conclusion about the average colon tube length!
With a 30inch tube (about 76,2cm) would on average be sufficient to reach the splenic flexure (and in some cases enter the transverse colon)
In those 104 patients where the splenic flexure was reached the mean maximum length of instrument inserted prior to reaching the flexure was 75.4cm, (SD = 21.9)(see http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1759977 )
This kinda corresponds with the average lengths of the various parts of the colon as:
anal canal ~4cm
rectum ~12cm
sigmoid colon ~40cm
descending colon ~20cm
The numbers you can find won't always be the same and of course they will be different from person to person and from what I've read the average lengths also depend on gender..
It is clear though that with the European tubes, the entry point of the enema will end up somewhere halfway the sigmoid colon whereas the longer tubes should reach the descending colon or even the transverse colon.
I'm curious on why there seems to be a different opinion on the length and thus possible insertion depth for colon tubes.
O, I love my 40cm long colon tubes all the way in and they work fine 😁 but as I true enema lover I started to feel being held back on more fun with a tube being too short!
When I invented the enema as a teenager I never went beyond anything longer then about 4inch(usually a lot shorter). (I really didn't know about enemas and that it had been done by someone before haha. kinda funny though, that you can still think you invented someone 'that naughty and wrong' that nobody else could have got the same idea)
Over the years I started to try all different kind of (self made) nozzles etc, but never went with something deeper then the rectum.
Of course when I got older I found out about the enema as a medical procedure(so I had to look in every book about it I could get my hands on). When I was about 18 and the internet started to come available I was shocked but pleasantly surprised as you can imagine with the alt.sex.enemas newsgroups.
Back to the tube!
I absolutely LOVED my first colon tube. It feels wonderful sliding in and you can actually feel it moving into the first bend of the sigmoid. I was really surprised I could easily take more water with less urge to expel and less cramping.
Question is, will a longer colon tube be worth the trouble getting one? yeah yeah, guess I already know the answer 😁
I don't feel like trying 'regular tubes' as a colon tube and hmm I found some silicon FR32, 30inch tubes which sounds really interesting but UPS airmail seems to make it about 3x the price for me(not even taking into account additional cost from customs, and they probably open the package when they see it on the scanner lol)
There are some longer rubber, colon tube like, tubes (11mm thick, 80cm long) from the German manufacturer Rusch, normally said to be used as "mouth tube" to flush out the stomach. Maybe I start trying one of those!
From NursingWiki.org:
The conventional, re-usable colon- or rectal tubes are made of flexible red rubber or latex or silicon. Their closed and rounded front ends make them much safer against perforation, and they drain through one or two offset lateral eye openings. Their thickness is measured in cm diameter or in mm circumference, also called "French Scale". As generally used in Europe, standard flexible-rubber colon tubes are 30 or 40 cm long and 0.9 to 1.2 cm thick, or French 28 to 38. Most patients do not notice differences in the thickness of inserted colon tubes, but the flexibility of colon tubes varies with the diameter. The correct flexibility allows the tube to be inserted deeply enough to follow the colonic curvature and to pass the sigmoidal flexure. This deep insertion avoids the painful expansion of the rectum. After withdrawal, a deeply inserted colon tube may preserve for a few minutes the curvature of the sigmoidal bend, due to its anelastic component. In one carefully recorded case, a 30 cm long Ruesch 12 mm colon tube showed a strong bend between 16 and 25 cm of insertion depth. However, an excessively soft (thin) tube may painfully kink or double up just before it reaches the flexure. Much longer and not too flexible colon tubes reportedly can be inserted as far as the hepatic bend and into the ascending colon, but the need for such deep insertion is commonly doubted.
For all tube insertions intended to pass the rectal/sigmoidal flexure, and before the clamp is released, experts recommend that the patient abdominally press against the insertion, simulating the opening of a colonic fold or valve during defecation. Without this applied abdominal pressure, the tube is likely to get stuck within the flexure, increasing the risk of perforation. Objections against deep insertion are also based on the possibility that the colon tube may penetrate the fecal content of the lowermost colon and will clog undesirably.