In standard medicine, the most frequent uses of enemas are to relieve constipation and for bowel cleansing before a medical examination or procedure also, they are employed as a lower gastrointestinal series (also called a barium enema), to treat traveler's diarrhea, as a vehicle for the administration of food, water or medicine, as a stimulant to the general system, as a local application and, more rarely, as a means of reducing temperature, as treatment for encopresis, and as a form of rehydration therapy (proctoclysis) in patients for whom intravenous therapy is not applicable. The word enema can also refer to the liquid injected, as well as to a device for administering such an injection. An enema, also known as a clyster, is an injection of fluid into the lower bowel by way of the rectum.
