Bowel Function in Acute Stroke Patients

OBJECTIVE To investigate factors related to bowel function and colon motility in acute stroke patients. METHOD Fifty-one stroke patients (29 males, mean age 63.4±13.6 years, onset 13.4±4.8 days) were recruited and divided into two groups: constipation (n=25) and non-constipation (n=26) groups. We evaluated the amount of intake, voiding function, concomitant swallowing problem and colon transit time (CTT) using radio-opaque markers for ascending, descending and rectosigmoid colons. The Adapted Patient Evaluation Conference System (APEC), Korean version of Modified Bathel Index (K-MBI) and Motricity Index (MI) were evaluated. RESULTS The constipation group showed significantly prolonged CTT of ascending, descending and entire colon (p<0.05) and more severe swallowing problems (p=0.048). The APEC scale (2.65±1.44 vs 1.52±0.92, p=0.001), K-MBI scores (59.4±14.4 vs 28.0±24.3, p<0.001) and MI scores (69.1±22.3 vs 46.8±25.9, p=0.001) of the constipation group were significantly lower compared to the non-constipation group. CONCLUSION Our study demonstrated that bowel function in acute stroke patients was associated with functional status and swallowing function, indicating the need for intensive functional training in post-stroke constipation patients.