Adherence to Evidence-Based Guidelines and Implications When Designing Electronic Documentation for Urinary Catheters.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the point prevalence and the rate of adherence to evidence-based guidelines for patients who had indwelling urinary catheters in three Australian acute care hospitals.

Design: A cross-sectional observational design was used.

Methods: A multisite cross-sectional observational design was utilised in three acute hospitals across Australia.

Quality of life in permanent ostomates - what really matters to them?

Purpose: The impact of a permanent stoma, such as post-abdominoperineal resection (APR), on quality of life (QoL) is well-documented. While stoma-related QoL tools exist, their relationship with stoma satisfaction is unclear. This study aimed to identify which aspects of QoL were most associated with stoma satisfaction.

Avoiding controversy: Considerations for point-of-view nursing simulations.

Point-of-view simulations involve participants engaging in simulation to experience what it might be like to live with a health condition or disability. These types of simulations have been used frequently in nurse education as a valuable pedagogical tool, as research has shown that student engagement with point-of-view simulations increases student empathy. However, point-of-view simulations have also been problematised by disability community members and scholars researching in the disability space, as ableist and culturally unsafe.

Postpartum anal incontinence in women with and without obstetric anal sphincter injuries.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Postpartum anal incontinence is common and distressing for women. We sought to look at the prevalence of anal incontinence in women who sustained obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASI) compared with women who did not, and factors leading to these symptoms during the postpartum period.

Methods: A total of 129 primiparous women sustaining OASI were compared with 131 women who did not (controls).

The relationship between residual sphincter damage after primary repair, faecal incontinence, and anal sphincter function in primiparous women with an obstetric anal sphincter injury.

Background And Aims: Anal sphincter injury has been identified as a primary cause of post-partum fecal incontinence in women with obstetric anal sphincter injury. However, women without obstetric anal sphincter injury may also develop fecal incontinence. The aim is to determine the relationship between fecal incontinence severity; and i) residual anal sphincter injury, quantified by the Starck score, and ii) anal sphincter tone.

A prospective "bottom up" study of the costs of faecal incontinence in ambulatory patients.

Background And Aim: The few studies that have examined direct costs of faecal incontinence are limited in that they employed retrospective databases, postal surveys, and focused upon institutionalised patients or post partum women. The aim of the current study was to identify the direct pre-treatment costs of faecal incontinence expended by a range of home dwelling patients and identify relationships between costs and severity of incontinence.

Methods: Consecutive patients attending an outpatient clinic for treatment of faecal incontinence were interviewed using a questionnaire, modeled on the Dowel Bryant Incontinence Cost Index.

Sacral Nerve Stimulation Fails to Offer Long-term Benefit in Patients With Slow-Transit Constipation.

Background: Sacral nerve stimulation is proposed as a treatment for slow-transit constipation. However, in our randomized controlled trial we found no therapeutic benefit over sham stimulation. These patients have now been followed-up over a long-term period.

Sacral nerve stimulation for faecal incontinence: medium-term follow-up from a single institution.

Background: Most studies on sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) are either single-centre with small numbers of patients or multi-centre studies. We present the medium-term follow-up results from a single centre for 127 patients undergoing SNS.

Methods: Consecutive patients treated with SNS for faecal incontinence had preoperative baseline St Mark's continence scores, faecal incontinence quality of life (FIQL) measures and anorectal physiology studies.

Long-term results of the cutting seton for high anal fistula.

Background: No single procedure for high anal fistula delivers a high cure rate while also completely protecting sphincter function. This paper reports our long-term results with the cutting seton for high fistulae and draws comparisons with advancement flap and ligation of intersphincteric fistula track (LIFT) procedures.

Methods: A retrospective study of prospectively collected data in consecutive patients undergoing treatment with cutting seton for high cryptoglandular fistulae was carried out.

Treatment efficacy of sacral nerve stimulation in slow transit constipation: a two-phase, double-blind randomized controlled crossover study.

Objectives: Sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) is a potential treatment for constipation refractory to standard therapies. However, there have been no randomized controlled studies examining its efficacy. In patients with slow transit constipation, we evaluated the efficacy of suprasensory and subsensory SNS compared with sham, in a prospective, 18-week randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, two-phase crossover study.

Clinical outcome and efficacy of antegrade colonic enemas administered via an indwelling cecostomy catheter in adults with defecatory disorders.

Background: Antegrade colonic enemas are used in selected adult patients with defecatory disorders. Conduit stenosis requiring revisional surgery is common.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine whether stenosis could be avoided by using an indwelling antegrade continence enema catheter in an appendiceal or cecal conduit, and to describe medium-term clinical outcomes.

Risk factors for obstetric anal sphincter injuries and postpartum anal and urinary incontinence: a case-control trial.

Introduction And Hypothesis: Obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS) cause serious maternal morbidity for mothers. A clearer understanding of aetiological factors is needed. We aimed to determine the risk factors for OASIS .

An optical fiber Bragg grating force sensor for monitoring sub-bandage pressure during compression therapy.

Graduated compression bandaging of the lower limbs is the primary therapy for venous leg ulcers with its efficacy believed to be predominantly dependent on the amount and the distribution of the compressive pressure applied. There has been on-going demand for an ideal sensor to facilitate in-vivo monitoring of the sub-bandage pressure. Several methods and devices have been reported but each has its limitations, such as bulkiness, low tolerance to movement, susceptible to thermal noise and single point sensing.