Bowel Dysfunction

Bowel function and continence are issues of central importance to persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), their families, community supports, and health care providers. Dunn [1] found that bowel incontinence was the greatest source of social discomfort following SCI. Recovery of bowel and bladder function has also been rated as more important than walking by individuals with SCI [2].

A common syndrome following SCI is neurogenic bowel dysfunction, which is defined as colonic dysfunctions due to lack of central nervous control. Neurogenic bowel adversely affects day-to-day activities and lifestyle in ~ 40 – 60% of individuals following SCI [3, 4]. Furthermore, up to 25% of individuals with long-term SCI will require hospitalization for gastrointestinal complications [4, 5]. The failure of conservative measures to treat chronic bowel problems in some patients requires treatments such as anterior sacral root stimulation [6, 7]antegrade colonic lavage [8], and stoma formation [5, 9].

In general, incontinence and neurogenic bowel dysfunction have been found to be major barriers to participation in community activities and therefore adversely impact quality of life [10, 11].

SCI BOWEL RESOURCES

Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction can be found on the website of the Royal College of Nursing as a downlable PDF.

Spinal Cord Essentials – is a patient education initiative which aims help people through rehabilitation following SCI. Below are downloable PDFs of the bowel care handouts.