Fecal incontinence has an enormous social and economic impact and may significantly impair quality of life. Even though fecal incontinence is a common complaint in (aging) adults, a structured pathophysiological model of the clinical presentations of fecal incontinence is missing in current literature. The most frequent manifestations of fecal incontinence are passive fecal loss, urge incontinence, or mixed fecal incontinence. At our institution, we treat 400 patients per year with defecation disorders, including a significant number of patients with fecal incontinence. On the basis of this experience, we have tried to create a concept that merges current insight in causes and treatment options in a clinically useful algorithm. By applying the system of anamnesis and physical examination described in this article and expanding it with simple additional anorectal examination, in most patients, one can determine the type of fecal incontinence and choose a targeted therapy.
Background: Sacral nerve modulation (SNM) is a minimally invasive treatment for chronic constipation or incontinence when conservative treatment is insufficient to provide relieve of symptoms. Case description: A 74-year-old patient with an implanted sacral nerve lead is presented in this case report with a dislodged lead without an adverse change in her incontinence treatment. This phenomenon has never been described before and raises the debate on sacral lead positioning in sacral nerve stimulation. Discussion: There are a lot of conflicting data regarding ideal lead positioning, such as S3 versus S2 or S4 implantation. The lead position in our case doesn't correspond to previously described locations and pathways which corroborate the legitimacy of new developments in this area such as percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, transcutaneous tibial nerve stimulation and transcutaneous abdominal electrical stimulation (TEN). Conclusions: The implantation of SNM seems standardized but leaves voids in the technique where further research is needed to refine it.
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