BACKGROUND In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that 215 million people continue to engage in open defecation. This practice facilitates the transmission of diarrheal diseases - one of the leading causes of mortality in children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa. The main purpose of this study is to: estimate changes in open defecation prevalence between 2005 and 2010 across countries in sub-Saha...

Dyschezia, which presents with symptoms of outlet obstruction and difficult defecation including straining, feeling of incomplete evacuation after defecation, and manual manoeuvres to facilitate defecation,1 is sometimes due to an intussusception extending into the anal canal (i.e. recto-anal intussusception) and/or to anterior rectocele. After failed first line medical and/or rehabilitative th...

background: treatment of chronic constipation is creating one of the major problems for doctors and patients. pyridostigmine increases the gastrointestinal motility through the effects on cholinesterase. it seems that this mechanism can reduce chronic constipation. the aim of this study was to compare the effects of pyridostigmine and bisacodyl on chronic constipation. methods: this study was c...

In laboratory animals and in human, centrally penetrant ghrelin receptor agonists, given systemically or orally, cause defecation. Animal studies show that the effect is due to activation of ghrelin receptors in the spinal lumbosacral defecation centers. However, it is not known whether there is a physiological role of ghrelin or the ghrelin receptor in the control of defecation. Using immunohi...

We evaluated the possibility that serotonin (5-HT) mediates defecation induced by corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) exogenously administered or released from the central nervous system by stress via the 5-HT3 receptor in rats. Intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of CRH (1, 3, and 10 μg/rat) dose dependently increased the number of stools excreted in rats, whereas intravenous (IV) inject...

BACKGROUND Rhythmic behaviors are ubiquitous phenomena in animals. In C. elegans, defecation is an ultradian rhythmic behavior: every ∼50 s a calcium wave initiating in the posterior intestinal cells triggers the defecation motor program that comprises three sequential muscle contractions. Oscillatory calcium signaling is central to the periodicity of defecation. The posteriormost intestinal ce...