Manometric analysis of the influence of rectal content on anal pressures in chronically constipated patients

Abstract

Abstract Objective The aim of our study was to analyze whether the presence of content in the rectum influences the anorectal manometry examination results in chronically constipated patients. Methods We evaluated 38 chronically constipated patients, 36 women and 2 men, with an average age of 53.55 years of age, all with a score above 10 on the Agachan Constipation Scoring System. All the patients underwent rectal preparation and then had the anorectal manometry examination without rectal content and after 5 min had it with a rectal balloon inflated with 200 ml of air in the rectum. Statistical analysis The statistical parametric paired-t test was applied in order to verify the difference in response between the groups after an intervention, adopting a significant level of 5% (p < 0.05). Results The anal pressure was analyzed from the standard anal manometry examination and we found a statistically significant influence on the manometric results for the patients’ average resting pressures, absolute average contractions, average contractions, evacuations, and sustained contractions in the functional anal canals. Conclusion The presence of rectal content influences the manometric values of average resting pressure, average absolute contraction, average contraction, evacuation, and average sustained contractions in the functional anal canal in the group of chronically constipated patients.