Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2015; 21(1): 1-5
Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.1
Surgery for obstructed defecation syndrome-is there an ideal technique
Stefan Riss, Anton Stift
Stefan Riss, Anton Stift, Department of General Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
Author contributions: Riss S and Stift A contributed to conception, design, acquisition and interpretation of data; all authors revised the article and approved the final version.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Stefan Riss, MD, PD, FRCS, Department of General Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. stefan.riss@meduniwien.ac.at
Telephone: +43-1-404005621 Fax: +43-1-404006932
Received: September 11, 2014
Peer-review started: September 11, 2014
First decision: September 27, 2014
Revised: October 30, 2014
Accepted: December 1, 2014
Article in press: December 1, 2014
Published online: January 7, 2015
Processing time: 306 Days and 2.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Surgical treatment of obstructive defecation syndrome remains a challenging topic. Several approaches have been described, with controversial functional outcomes. Each technique has its risks and benefits, thus careful patient selection is crucial to achieve optimal functional results. It is mandatory to assess not only defecation disorders but also evaluate overall pelvic floor symptoms, such as fecal incontinence and urinary disorders for choosing an appropriate and tailored strategy. Radiological investigation is essential but may not explain complaints of every patient.