Bowel Management Essay

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Coggrave (2008) released a study that discusses about the different forms of bowel management techniques. To develop an effective bowel management routine there needs to be an assessment done first because every patient responds differently and there also will be a process of trial an error to develop the tailored solution for the patient. The minimum impact a bowel routine can have on a patient’s life include the least invasive way, shortest time, and least amount of interventions. However, that will always not work out and a patient may suffer difficulties that are associated with neurogenic bowel such as abdominal pain, constipation, impaction, incontinence, diarrhea, autonomic dysreflexia, and abdominal distention. The frequency of a …show more content…

A person with a flaccid bowel may have to empty their bowels twice a day or more while patients with reflex bowel may have to evacuate their bowels daily or every other day. Patients that have a reflex bowel have a spinal cord injury between level C-1 and T-12. These patients need to have soft formed stools. A patient with a flaccid bowel has an injury at L-1 to their sacrum and these patients need to have firmer stools. It is recommenced that SCI patients do their routines 15-20 minutes after they eat due to the gastrocolic reflex that increases the activity in the gut due to increased peristalsis. Even drinking something warm may help if they do not feel like eating. Digital stimulation of the rectum is a common intervention done by many SCI patients. It is done to increase reflex muscular movement in the rectum. This helps to aid in expelling of the stool. The goal for most patients is to have them sit up on a toilet or commode chair because they are more likely to empty their bowels completely than when in bed. Yet, some patients depending on how high their level of injury is they may not be able to sit on the commode or toilet due to decreased control of their trunk. Certain medications used for SCI patients include suppositories with digital stimulation

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