Published online Mar 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i11.2029
Peer-review started: November 15, 2016
First decision: December 19, 2016
Revised: December 30, 2016
Accepted: January 11, 2017
Article in press: January 11, 2017
Published online: March 21, 2017
Processing time: 127 Days and 1.9 Hours
To investigate compliance with transanal irrigation (TAI) one year after a training session and to identify predictive factors for compliance.
The compliance of one hundred eight patients [87 women and 21 men; median age 55 years (range 18-83)] suffering from constipation or fecal incontinence (FI) was retrospectively assessed. The patients were trained in TAI over a four-year period at a single institution. They were classified as adopters if they continued using TAI for at least one year after beginning the treatment or as non-adopters if they stopped. Predictive factors of compliance with TAI were based on pretreatment assessments and training progress. The outcomes of the entire cohort of patients who had been recruited for the TAI treatment were expressed in terms of intention-to-treat.
Forty-six of the 108 (43%) trained patients continued to use TAI one year after their training session. The patients with FI had the best results, with 54.5% remaining compliant with TAI. Only one-third of the patients who complained of slow transit constipation or obstructed defecation syndrome continued TAI. There was an overall discontinuation rate of 57%. The most common reason for discontinuing TAI was the lack of efficacy (41%). However, 36% of the patients who discontinued TAI gave reasons independent of the efficacy of the treatment such as technical problems (catheter expulsion, rectal balloon bursting, instilled water leakage or retention, pain during irrigation, anal bleeding, anal fissure) while 23% said that there were too many constraints. Of the patients who reported discontinuing TAI, the only predictive factor was the progress of the training (OR = 4.9, 1.3-18.9, P = 0.02).
The progress of the training session was the only factor that predicted patient compliance with TAI.
Core tip: Less than 50% of the trained patients continued to use transanal irrigation (TAI) for the treatment of their defecation disorders one year after their training sessions. We showed for the first time that the only predictive factor for TAI discontinuation was the progress of the training. This suggested that the first training session should be better structured in order to promote more realistic expectations of treatment efficacy, side-effects, and constraints in order to reduce the discontinuation rate.