Severe perineal trauma (SPT) experienced during childbirth is a serious morbidity for women, impacting on short and long-term physical and psychological wellbeing (Signorello et al., 2001; Macarthur and Macarthur, 2004; Priddis et al., 2013; H. Priddis et al., 2014). SPT is defined as a third degree tear, which involves injury to the perineum involving the anal sphincter complex; or a fourth de...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate data of quantitative anal sphincter EMG in normal controls and to compare them with patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA). METHODS Quantitative anal sphincter EMG were performed on 100 normal controls and 11 patients with MSA to characterise EMG data in these two groups. RESULTS In the normal controls, there was a trend for increased motor unit potential (MUP) am...

In order to investigate the electrophysiology of the human internal anal sphincter and two current concepts of sphincter function, simultaneous manometric and electrical recordings were made from circular smooth muscle of the internal anal sphincter in the resting state and during reflexly induced sphincter relaxation. Three groups were studied: seven normal subjects, 25 patients with functiona...

EMG of pelvic floor muscles, single fibre EMG of external anal sphincter and both bulbocavernosus and anal reflexes were investigated in 31 men without sacral nervous system lesions and in 12 patients with neurogenic erectile impotence, of whom one had slight loss of sensitivity to pinprick in the lower sacral dermatomes. EMG and single fibre EMG abnormalities have been found concomitantly in e...

Botulinum toxin can chemically denervate striated muscle. Botulinum toxin A (15 U) was used to treat ten patients with chronic anal fissure by injection in the internal sphincter. In seven patients, the lesion healed at 2 months after treatment; one relapsed at 3 months. In one patient the lesion healed at 1 month, but partly relapsed a month later. Mild faecal incontinence lasting for 1 day wa...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the neonatal and maternal outcomes associated with successful operative vaginal births assisted by manual rotation. DESIGN Prospective and retrospective observational study. SETTING Delivery suite in a tertiary referral teaching hospital in England. POPULATION A cohort of 2,426 consecutive operative births, in the second stage of labour, complicated with malposition ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence and extent of vaginal and perineal trauma among primiparous women after mediolateral and lateral episiotomy. METHODS In a prospective randomized study at University Hospital Pilsen, Czech Republic, 790 consecutive primiparous women were enrolled between April 2010 and April 2012. Mediolateral episiotomy (MLE) followed an angle of at least 60° from the midli...