Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jun 10, 2015; 7(6): 575-581
Published online Jun 10, 2015. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v7.i6.575
Published online Jun 10, 2015. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v7.i6.575
Endoanal ultrasonography in fecal incontinence: Current and future perspectives
Andreia Albuquerque, Gastroenterology Department, Centro Hospitalar São João, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal
Author contributions: Albuquerque A solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest: There is no financial support or relationships that may pose conflict of interest to declare.
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: Andreia Albuquerque, MD, Gastroenterology Department, Centro Hospitalar São João, Porto, Alameda Professor Hernâni Monteiro, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal. a.albuquerque.dias@gmail.com
Telephone: +351-225-512100 Fax: +351-225-025766
Received: January 26, 2015
Peer-review started: January 28, 2015
First decision: March 6, 2015
Revised: April 1, 2015
Accepted: April 16, 2015
Article in press: April 20, 2015
Published online: June 10, 2015
Peer-review started: January 28, 2015
First decision: March 6, 2015
Revised: April 1, 2015
Accepted: April 16, 2015
Article in press: April 20, 2015
Published online: June 10, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Clinicians need to be more alert to fecal incontinence, which is a serious under-reported problem. Endoanal ultrasonography is currently the gold standard for sphincter evaluation in these patients. The most important cause of fecal incontinence is obstetric injury and the most relevant questions and controversies are related to this. The diagnosed of sphincter injury after delivery and after complete primary repair is much lower to that found by ultrasonography, and many of these women developed fecal incontinence. The clinical evaluation, technical aspects, advantages and limitations and the current role of three dimensional ultrasonography and real-time elastography will also be discussed.