Important Facts You Need to Know about Bowel Incontinence
Bowel incontinence is termed as a situation where a person becomes unable to control the bowel movements. In this case, abnormal bowel leakage occurs at abrupt timings. Mostly, solid, semi-solid or liquid stool or mucus is discharged suddenly. This condition is also known as fecal incontinence.
In general, most adults face this situation in the form of urge incontinence. In this type of bowel incontinence, a sudden emergence of defecation occurs for a patient. Passive incontinence occurs when a patient keeps defecating without awareness. Aging and dementia can cause this type of incontinence.
Causes of bowel incontinence
Bowel incontinence is caused due to many reasons.
Symptoms of bowel incontinence
There are a number of symptoms of bowel incontinence. One can easily observe and understand the symptoms and be sure about the outburst of the disorder.
- Urge incontinence
This type of bowel incontinence largely denotes a sudden urge to pass stools.
This type of incontinence carries the symptoms where a patient keeps on discharging the feces, being completely unaware that he’s doing so. This symptom is dangerous because it generally occurs to those who have chronic bowel incontinence. Patients having dementia can develop the complication of passive incontinence.
Other symptoms of bowel incontinence are divided largely into two types, emotional symptoms, and physical symptoms.
The emotional symptoms of fecal incontinence include conditions like:
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Fearfulness
- Fear of public humiliation
- Depression
- Exhaustion
- Isolation
- Reduced libido
- Secrecy
- Frustration
- Poor image of the body
- Embarrassment
There are some physical symptoms of fecal incontinence. They are:
- Soreness of the skin
- Odor
- Pain in the abdomen
- Working, traveling, and exercising can face an imbalance
Treatment for bowel incontinence
Multiple treatments of bowel incontinence are available which can efficiently work towards the recovery of the condition. Bowel training can help treat the condition of bowel incontinence. A routine bowel discharge can help a person to be cured of fecal incontinence.
A person needs to be treated with Kegel Exercise. It is also known as pelvic floor muscle exercise. This comprises of relaxing and tightening of the muscles in the anus, rectum, and pelvic floor. It helps in strengthening the muscles.
Medications
The drugs which can effectively treat the condition of bowel incontinence are:
- Loperamide
- Bismuth Subsalicylate
- Psyllium
- Laxatives
Some dietary changes can also help in treating fecal incontinence. They are
- Avoiding spicy foods
- Avoiding the consumption of extra food
- Maintain a balance in the meal timings
- Taking such foods which reduce bowel incontinence
Some therapeutic measures which the doctor can take are mentioned below
- Bio-feedback therapy
A patient can acquire knowledge about sensing and controlling the bowel movements. - Sacral nerve stimulation
In this process, electrical stimulations are applied to the nerves of the colon and the rectum. Doctors place thin wires over the skin and mild electrical pulses are passed through the patient’s nerve.
Surgical methods include operations like the following:
- Sphincteroplasty
- Colostomy
- Artificial anal sphincter surgery
