First Comprehensive Study of Bowel Control Loss
Categories: Medical Consequences
What is the rate of occurrence, risk factors, and outcomes for persons with bowel control loss after traumatic brain injury?
Past Studies
Past Studies have not determined how often bowel control loss happens,
This Study
This Study is the first comprehensive analysis of bowel control loss associated with traumatic brain injury. The researchers examined 1,013 persons with traumatic brain injury from 17 Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems’ (TBIMS) acute rehabilitation inpatient settings. On admission to inpatient rehabilitation, 68% of the participants experienced bowel control loss, at discharge from rehabilitation-12.4%, and after one year-5.2%. It appeared that bowel control loss could result directly from a brain injury specifically to the frontal part of brain, which regulates the bowel control function, or from the cumulative consequences from severe brain injury including pelvic fractures, urinary tract infections, impaired thinking skills, and decreased awareness of the need to go to the bathroom. Persons with bowel control loss tended to be a few years older than the average participant in the TBIMS, spend more days as an inpatient, and make less functional gains in rehabilitation. They were more likely to be discharged to an institutional setting.
Who May Be Affected By These Findings
Persons with brain injury, their family and friends, caregivers, healthcare providers, rehabilitation personnel, and researchers
Caveats
The researchers state that despite the obvious importance, the lack of bowel control loss research may reflect the discomfort and reluctance of researchers, clinicians, families, caregivers, and persons with brain injuries to openly discuss bowel control loss.
Bottom Line
In this study, more than
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Find This Study
Foxx-Orenstein, A.; Kolakowsky-Hayner, S.; Marwitz, J. H.; Cifu, D. X.; Dunbar, A.; Englander, J.; & Francisco, G. (2003). Incidence, risk factors, and outcomes of fecal incontinence after acute brain injury: Findings from the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Database. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, (84), 231-237.