Delhi hospital successfully treats chronic constipation using biofeedback therapy

Doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital have successfully used the biofeedback therapy to treat patients of anorectal dyssynergia— a condition in which the pelvic floor muscles are unable to relax, impeding the normal bowel movement.

It is estimated that up to 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the adult population suffers from troublesome constipation, said Prof. Anil Arora, chairman of the Institute of Liver Gastroenterology and Pancreatobiliary Sciences at the hospital.

The doctors at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) analysed 180 patients who came to the hospital with chronic constipation.

On evaluating the cause of constipation, doctors found anorectal dyssynergia — when the pelvic muscles tighten up at the time of passing of stool, impeding bowel movement — in 56 per cent of the patients.

“We used the biofeedback therapy in which we inserted a balloon in the rectum and filled it upto 50 per cent with water. We asked the patients to push and showed the act live on monitors using a software,” Arora said.

“We used this technique to train them to relax their pelvic muscles,” he added.

The biofeedback therapy yielded good results in 70 per cent of the patients of dyssynergia. Younger patients showed a much better response, with success rates of up to 82 per cent, he said.

“Our study shows that a proper and timely evaluation of type of constipation and the planned appropriate therapy will go in long way in alleviating the cumbersome prolonged misery of many a hapless patients,” said Dr Arora.