BACKGROUND Probiotics are increasingly used in the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders. Studies in constipated adults with a Bifidus yoghurt (containing Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus acidophilus) showed a significant increase in defecation frequency. The aim of this pilot study was to determine if Bifidobacterium breve is effective in the treatm...

INTRODUCTION The internal anal sphincter receives a stimulatory alpha(1) adrenergic innervation. Use of an adrenergic agonist may therefore have a role in treating patients with faecal incontinence. METHODS Ten patients (seven females, median age 66 years) with passive faecal incontinence related to weak internal anal sphincter were studied. All patients had intact anal sphincters as assessed...

Frequency and type of incontinence and its association with other variables were assessed in females with Rett Syndrome (RS) (n = 63), using an adapted Dutch version of the 'Parental Questionnaire: Enuresis/Urinary Incontinence' (Beetz et al. 1994). Also, incontinence in RS was compared to a control group consisting of females with non-specific (mixed) intellectual disability (n = 26). Urinary ...

Autonomic dysfunction is common in association with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Cardiovascular involvement is the most common in this context. But isolated faecal incontinence as parasympathetic hyperactivity is the rarest event. In this case report, we documented a case of Guillain-Barre Syndrome with bulbar palsy and diarrhoea for 3 weeks without detectable pathology and not responding to conven...

Studies were carried out in 15 normal subjects and 14 patients with idiopathic faecal incontinence to test whether a rectoanal flap valve could be responsible for maintaining faecal continence in man. Intraluminal pressures were recorded from the rectum and from three sites in the anal canal during serial increases in intra-abdominal pressure, produced by forced expiration into a sphygmomanomet...

OBJECTIVE To compare two policies for episiotomy: restrictive and systematic. PATIENTS AND METHODS It is a quasi-randomised comparative study between two French university hospitals with contrasting episiotomy policies: one using it restrictively and the second routinely. Population included 774 nulliparous women delivered during 1996 of a singleton in cephalic presentation at a term of 37-41...