Quality of life is markedly improved in patients with fecal incontinence after sacral nerve stimulation.

Objective: The aim of the present analysis was to report on the relationship between long-term improvement in quality of life (QOL) and fecal incontinence (FI) severity and long-term reduction in FI episodes after sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) or sacral neuromodulation.

Methods: Patients who met inclusion/exclusion criteria, and initially had more than 2 FI episodes per week, were offered SNS therapy. Patients with 50% or higher reduction in FI during a 2-week test period were implanted with a neurostimulator (InterStim; Medtronic, Minneapolis, Minn).

Automatic adaptation of neurostimulation therapy in response to changes in patient position: results of the Posture Responsive Spinal Cord Stimulation (PRS) Research Study.

Background: Variation in the intensity of neurostimulation with body position is a practical problem for many patients implanted with a spinal cord stimulation system because positional changes may result in overstimulation or understimulation. These posture-related changes in patients' perception of paresthesia can affect therapeutic outcomes of spinal cord stimulation therapy. An accelerometer-based algorithm that automatically adjusts spinal cord stimulation based on sensed body position or activity represents a potential solution to the problem of position-mediated variations in paresthesia perception.