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Study design: Postal survey. Objectives: To describe bowel management in community-dwelling spinal cord-injured (SCI) individuals and to explore associations between age, injury, dependency, problems, interventions and satisfaction. Setting: Outpatients of a single SCI unit, in the United Kingdom. Methods: Postal questionnaire to all outpatients with SCI for at least 1 year, of any level or density, aged 18 years or more. Results: Response rate was 48.6% (n ¼ 1334). Median age was 52 years, median duration of injury 18 years. The most common intervention was digital evacuation (56%). Up to 30 min was spent on each bowel care episode by 58% of respondents; 31-60 min by 22%; 14% spent over 60 min. Reported problems included constipation (39%), haemorrhoids (36%) and abdominal distension (31%). Reduced satisfaction with bowel function was associated with longer duration of each bowel care episode, faecal incontinence, greater number of interventions used and more problems reported (all Pp0.001); 130 (9.7%) had undergone any type of surgical bowel intervention. Impact of bowel dysfunction on the respondent's life was rated as significantly greater than other aspects of SCI (Pp0.001). Conclusions: Managing SCI bowel function in the community is complex, time consuming and remains conservative. Despite potential for bias from a low response, for this large group of responders, bowel dysfunction impacted most on life compared with other SCI-related impairments. The study findings demand further exploration of bowel management to reduce impact, minimize side effects and increase the choice of management strategies available.

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Study design: Review article. Objectives: To provide a consensus expert review of the treatment modality for transanal irrigation (TAI). Methods: A consensus group of specialists from a range of nations and disciplines who have experience in prescribing and monitoring patients using TAI worked together assimilating both the emerging literature and rapidly accruing clinical expertise. Consensus was reached by a round table discussion process, with individual members leading the article write-up in the sections where they had particular expertise. Results: Detailed trouble-shooting tips and an algorithm of care to assist professionals with patient selection, management and follow-up was developed. Conclusion: This expert review provides a practical adjunct to training for the emerging therapeutic area of TAI. Careful patient selection, directly supervised training and sustained follow-up are key to optimise outcomes with the technique. Adopting a tailored, stepped approach to care is important in the heterogeneous patient groups to whom TAI may be applied. Sponsorship: The review was financially supported by Coloplast A/S.

BackgroundPeople with central neurological disease or injury have a much higher risk of both faecal incontinence and constipation than the general population. There is often a fine line between the two symptoms, with any management intended to ameliorate one risking precipitating the other. Bowel problems are observed to be the cause of much anxiety and may reduce quality of life in these people. Current bowel management is largely empirical, with a limited research base. This is an update of a Cochrane review first published in 2001 and subsequently updated in 2003 and 2006. The review is relevant to individuals with any disease directly and chronically affecting the central nervous system (post-traumatic, degenerative, ischaemic or neoplastic), such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. ObjectivesTo determine the effects of management strategies for faecal incontinence and constipation in people with a neurological disease or injury affecting the central nervous system. Search methodsWe searched the Cochrane Incontinence Group Trials Register (searched 8 June 2012), which includes searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE and MEDLINE In-Process as well as handsearching of journals and conference proceedings; and all reference lists of relevant articles. Selection criteriaRandomised and quasi-randomised trials evaluating any type of conservative or surgical intervention for the management of faecal incontinence and constipation in people with central neurological disease or injury were selected. Specific therapies for the treatment of neurological diseases that indirectly affect bowel dysfunction were also considered. Data collection and analysisAt least two review authors independently assessed the risk of bias of eligible trials and independently extracted data from the included trials using a range of pre-specified outcome measures. 1 Management of faecal incontinence and constipation in adults with central neurological diseases (Review)

Background/Objective: To compare symptoms of neurogenic bowel dysfunction in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) at baseline and after 10 weeks of treatment with transanal irrigation and to identify possible factors that could predict outcome of the treatment. Methods: Sixty-two patients with SCI (45 men and 17 women; mean age, 47.5 6 15.5 [SD] years) from 5 specialized European SCI centers were offered treatment with transanal irrigation for a 10-week period. Bowel function was assessed at baseline and at termination using the Cleveland Clinic Constipation Scoring System (CCCSS; 0-30, 30 ¼ severe symptoms), St. Mark's Fecal Incontinence Grading System (FIGS; 0-24, 24 ¼ severe symptoms), and the Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction score (NBD; 0-47, 47 severe symptoms). Factors predicting improvement in bowel function scores were identified using a general linear model. Results: Severity of symptoms at termination was significantly reduced compared with baseline values (CCCSS: À3.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], À4.6 to À2.2; FIGS:-4.1; 95% CI, À5.2 to À2.9; NBD: À4.5; 95% CI, À6.6 to À2.4; all P , 0.0001). Although several factors were associated with positive outcome, no consistent and readily explainable pattern could be identified. Surprisingly, hand function, level of dependency, predominant symptom, and colonic transit time were not associated with outcome. Conclusions: Transanal irrigation in patients with SCI reduces constipation, improves anal continence, and improves symptom-related quality of life. No readily obtainable factors could predict outcome, which might be because of the relatively low number of patients. This supports the use of trial and error as a strategy in deciding on a bowel management method for neurogenic bowel dysfunction.

Study design: Description of a clinical service, evaluation of pressure relief practices. Objectives: To describe a specialist seating assessment clinic and a change in clinical practice arising from its work. Setting: National Spinal Injuries Centre, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK. Methods: Retrospective review of the ischial transcutaneous oxygen measurements of 50 newly injured and chronic spinal cord-injured (SCI) individuals seen in a specialist seating assessment clinic. Tissue oxygenation was measured in the sitting position (loaded) and during pressure relief (unloaded). Results: Mean duration of pressure relief required to raise tissue oxygen to unloaded levels was 1 min 51 s (range 42 sF3 min 30 s). Conclusion: These results confirmed the clinical perception that brief pressure lifts of 15-30 s are ineffective in raising transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPO 2 ) to the unloaded level for most individuals. Sustaining the traditional pressure relief by lifting up from the seat for the necessary extended duration is neither practical nor desirable for the majority of clients. It was found that alternative methods of pressure relief were more easily sustainable and very efficient.

Study design: Randomised controlled trial. Objectives: High-quality evidence for interventions in bowel management (BM) after spinal cord injury (SCI) is lacking and BM programs are developed empirically. This randomized, controlled trial compared usual care with a stepwise protocol based on earlier published work to examine whether systematic use of less invasive interventions could reduce the need for oral laxatives and invasive interventions such as manual evacuation, and improve BM outcomes in individuals with chronic SCI. Setting: United Kingdom. Methods: In all, 68 individuals were recruited (35 in intervention group), median age 47 years (range 24-73 years), median duration of injury 16 years (range 1-47 years). Bowel diaries were maintained for a maximum of 6 weeks while the intervention group followed a stepwise protocol designed to test interventions singly and in combination. Measures of quality of life and preferences for different bowel care interventions were recorded. Results: The stepwise protocol did not improve BM outcomes; fecal incontinence was more frequent (P ¼ 0.04); the need for oral laxatives and invasive interventions was not reduced (P ¼ 0.4). Bowel care took consistently longer in the intervention group. Conclusions: The study findings support the need for manual evacuation in BM and provide evidence of acceptability of the technique to SCI individuals. For some individuals oral laxatives are an essential part of management. The results are in contrast with previous studies in younger samples with shorter duration of injury.