Relationship between episiotomy and fecal incontinence after delivery

Abstract

Background: Fecal incontinence is an embarrassing problem and decreases the woman’s quality of life. The literature has shown that women with obstetric trauma especially by episiotomy had damaged anal sphincter (Internal and External). We aimed to find the role of episiotomy in the fecal incontinence in women after delivery. Methods: In this study, 71 females with previous vaginal deliveries were investigated by endoanal ultrasonography. The degree of FI was measured using the incontinence score of Wexner. The number of episiotomies was measured for each patient. Results: The mean Wexner score was 9.0±0.7 in the incontinent patients. The mean of normal vaginal delivery was 3.48±0.3 and 33.8% of the patients whom had a history of hemorrhoidectomy. Of patients, 70% had undergone one or more prior episiotomies during their deliveries. Conclusion: Episiotomy could be one of the risk factors in fecal incontinence but we did not find any significant difference in Wexner score between patients with or without episiotomy. Endoanal sonography seems an effective tool to evaluate and prediction of anal injury during episiotomy in some critical cases.

Keywords

• episiotomy
• anal
• fecal incontinence
• iran