Faecal incontinence： Current knowledges and perspectives

• Published in: World journal of gastrointestinal pathophysiology 2016-02, Vol.7 (1), p.59-71
• Main Authors: Benezech, Alban, Bouvier, Michel, Vitton, Véronique
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Faecal; incontinence; Review; Treatment
• ISSN: 2150-5330; 2150-5330
• DOI: 10.4291/wjgp.v7.i1.59

Faecal incontinence （FI） is a disabling and frequentsymptom since its prevalence can vary between 5%and 15% of the general population. It has a particularnegative impact on quality of life. Many tools arecurrently available for the treatment of FI, from conservativemeasures to invasive surgical treatments. Theconservative treatment may be dietetic measures,various pharmacological agents, anorectal rehabilitation,posterior tibial nerve stimulation, and transanal irrigation.If needed, patients may have miniinvasive approachessuch as sacral nerve modulation or antegrade irrigation.In some cases, a surgical treatment is proposed, mainlyexternal anal sphincter repair. Although these differenttherapeutic options are available, new techniques arearriving allowing new hopes for the patients. Moreover,most of them are non-invasive such as local applicationof an α1-adrenoceptor agonist, stem cell injections,rectal injection of botulinum toxin, acupuncture. Newmore invasive techniques with promising results arealso coming such as anal magnetic sphincter andantropylorus transposition. This review reports the maincurrent available treatments of FI and the developingtherapeutics tools.