What are the causes of fecal incontinence?

Fecal incontinence is really an embarrassing thing. You cannot control the excretion of feces and gas by yourself. Long-term fecal incontinence will also cause frequent moisture in the genitals. When fecal incontinence occurs completely, stool will often be excreted whenever you cough or walk, affecting personal hygiene, life, work, and family. Do you know what are the causes of fecal incontinence? We read on together.

1. Congenital malformation of the anus

(1) Developmental defects of the nervous system: Congenital lumbar meningocele or spina bifida may be accompanied by anal incontinence. The patient's external sphincter and puborectalis muscle lose their normal nerve innervation, have no contraction function, and are in a relaxed state. And because both the sensory and motor systems are affected, the rectal mucosa lacks a sense of expansion when filled with feces, cannot arouse the urge to defecate or initiate defecation, and the feces in the rectum can be discharged at any time. Such children often suffer from urinary incontinence.

(2) Anorectal malformation: The anorectum itself and the pelvic structure undergo changes. The higher the blind end of the rectum is, the more obvious and complex the changes are. In high-position deformity, the blind end of the rectum is located above the pelvic diaphragm, the puborectalis muscle is shortened and obviously displaced forward and upward; the internal sphincter is absent or only in its rudiments; the external sphincter is mostly in a loose state, filled with fat tissue, and the muscle fibers have abnormal and disordered course. Its etiology is mainly related to the deformity accompanied by defects in the sensory and motor nerve tissue structure.

2. Trauma

Due to traumatic damage to the anorectal ring, the sphincter loses its sphincter function and leads to fecal incontinence. Such as puncture wounds, cuts, burns, frostbite and lacerations (mainly perineal lacerations during childbirth).

3. Nervous system diseases

It is common in brain trauma, brain tumors, cerebral infarction, spinal cord tumors, spinal tuberculosis, cauda equina injury, etc., which can all lead to fecal incontinence.

4. Anorectal diseases

The most common are anorectal tumors; such as rectal cancer, anal canal cancer, Crohn's disease invading the anorectum and affecting the anal sphincter, or long-term diarrhea caused by ulcerative colitis causing anal canal inflammation, or anal relaxation caused by rectal prolapse, and severe scars around the anus affecting the anal sphincter, resulting in incomplete anal closure, all of which can cause fecal incontinence.

Fecal incontinence is an anorectal disease with a very low incidence rate. The main site of disease is the anus. Currently, the symptoms of fecal incontinence can be treated through diet adjustment and exercise methods. Especially in the above content, we have a general introduction to the causes of fecal incontinence, so just diagnose the cause of your disease and then receive targeted treatment.