In functional bowel disorders short-term sacral nerve stimulation seems to be a useful diagnostic tool to assess patients for a minor invasive therapy alternative to conventional surgical procedure.

Sacral nerve stimulation maintains its efficacy long term, not only in regard to control of symptoms but also regarding quality of life.

Neuromodulation can be considered an option for fecal incontinence. However, an accurate clinical and instrumental evaluation and careful patient selection are required to optimize outcome.

Long-term follow-up data showing improvements in scores on the visual analog pain scale and quality of life questionnaire indicate that, before adopting more aggressive surgical procedures, SNS should be considered for patients with chronic idiopathic anal pain in whom pharmacologic and biofeedback treatments have failed to produce effective results.

This is the first study to show the influence of geographic origin on quality of life of patients with a permanent colostomy. Possible factors that may influence the outcome of patients after surgical treatment of rectal cancer, such as weather, religion, or culture, should be taken into account when quality of life evaluations are considered.