What are the treatment options for fecal incontinence?
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Treatment options for fecal incontinence include medication, surgery, and other therapies. Treatment for your fecal incontinence may vary depending on its cause. Your doctor may prescribe laxatives or stool softeners, anti-diarrheal drugs, or medications to help reduce the muscular contractions in your bowels. Your doctor may electrically stimulate your sacral nerve, which runs from your spine to your pelvis and gives your sphincter muscles strength. Stimulating this nerve can help improve muscle strength in the rectum. You may need to change your diet or undergo bowel training therapy. You may need surgery to repair physical damage to the rectum or bowel. If all else fails, you may need to be fitted with a colostomy bag.
Treatment options for fecal incontinence include medication, surgery, and other therapies. Treatment for your fecal incontinence may vary depending on its cause. Your doctor may prescribe laxatives or stool softeners, anti-diarrheal drugs, or... More -
Dr. Celeste Robb-Nicholson answered:Although the circumstances of fecal incontinence are somewhat different from those of urinary incontinence, the treatments are similar. They are directed at controlling diarrhea and constipation by adding fiber to the diet, strengthening the pelvic muscles, and improving the ability of the anal sphincter to contract.
- Pelvic muscle strengthening. Kegel exercises can strengthen pelvic floor and sphincter muscles. Biofeedback training offers much the same benefit, but in addition to helping you strengthen and coordinate the action of your sphincter muscles, it can improve your ability to sense the presence of stool in the rectum. It offers a 75% chance of improvement and a 50% chance of complete relief.
Electrical and magnetic stimulation of pelvic floor muscles may also be used to treat fecal incontinence, but there are few data on the effectiveness of either. - Surgery. If you do require surgery, the exact approach will depend on the cause of your symptoms and your response to previous treatments. The operations include procedures to correct rectal prolapse, to repair and raise the pelvic floor muscles, and to reshape, repair, and replace the anal sphincter. Colostomy is a last resort. This procedure involves bringing the end of the intestine to a surgical opening in the patient's abdomen. Feces are collected in a small pouch worn over the opening.
Although the circumstances of fecal incontinence are somewhat different from those of urinary incontinence, the treatments are similar. They are directed at controlling diarrhea and constipation by adding fiber to the diet, strengthening the pelvic... More - Pelvic muscle strengthening. Kegel exercises can strengthen pelvic floor and sphincter muscles. Biofeedback training offers much the same benefit, but in addition to helping you strengthen and coordinate the action of your sphincter muscles, it can improve your ability to sense the presence of stool in the rectum. It offers a 75% chance of improvement and a 50% chance of complete relief.
