Identifying Causes for Chronic Constipation & Fecal Incontinence

While fecal incontinence and chronic constipation fall outside healthy bowel movements on opposite ends of the spectrum, they do share one thing in common — they can be very uncomfortable and disruptive to your life.

These conditions are also quite common. Chronic constipation affects about 12-19% of people in North America, and fecal incontinence affects 9.2% of North Americans.

As with most health conditions, identifying the exact nature of the problem is the first step toward relief, and that’s where an anorectal manometry comes in. At Fairfax Colon & Rectal Surgery, our team of board-certified colorectal specialists prides itself on offering the very latest diagnostic and treatment tools. When it comes to chronic constipation and fecal incontinence, that tool is often the anorectal manometry.

Here’s how this quick-and-easy diagnostic procedure can set you on the right path toward improving your quality of life.

How bowel movements work

A great place to start this discussion is to briefly review what happens during a bowel movement. After your food is digested, the waste byproduct makes its way through your colon and into your rectum, which is a sort of staging area for bowel movements.

When the nerves in this area sense the presence of waste, they interact with your brain to control the muscles inside your rectum and anus that help push the waste out.

With chronic constipation and/or fecal incontinence, there may be a disconnect in this process that’s preventing your body from having normal bowel movements. And the anorectal manometry is what we use to test for that — a manometer measures the pressure  of the muscles inside your rectum and anus so we can see whether there’s too much, too little, or whether the pressure isn’t timed correctly.

What happens during an anorectal manometry

Now let’s look at what you can expect during your anorectal manometry. Leading up to your appointment, we’re going to ask that you stop eating for a certain amount of time before the test. We will also have you perform an enema before getting to your clinic so that there’s no stool in your rectum or anus.

When you arrive, you’ll change into a gown, and then we’ll make you comfortable on the treatment table. Once you’re ready, we insert the pressure transducer, which is a thin, flexible tube, through your anus and into your rectum. This catheter is also equipped with an empty balloon on the end that we insert.

While the manometer is inside your rectum and anus, it’s continually measuring the pressure and sending the information to our computer. 

Once the catheter is in position, we inflate the balloon to test how your muscles respond when there’s something in the rectum that needs to be passed.

In total, an anorectal manometry only takes about 30-45 minutes, and there’s no pain or anesthesia involved, which means you’re free to get right back to your day afterward.

After your anorectal manometry

Once we complete your anorectal manometry, our team reviews the results to identify the cause of your fecal incontinence or chronic constipation. From there, we can develop an appropriate treatment plan to help you gain better control over your bowel movements. 

If you have more questions about anorectal manometry or would like to see whether this diagnostic tool might help you find better bowel movements, please click here to schedule a consultation at one of our five offices in the Fairfax, Virginia, area.