How can bowel irrigation help?
Living with bowel problems can have considerable influence on your quality of life – both on your personal life and your hobbies, but it may also result in decreased ability to work.
Overall effect of bowel irrigation
Here are some of the effects that can be achieved by using bowel irrigation routinely:
- Control of defecation: Regain control of bowel activity.
- Prolonged continence period (24-48hrs): Gaining confidence to live life to the fullest again.
Increased wellbeing: - Reduced symptoms of nausea, fatigue or lack of appetite.
- More hygienic: May reduce risk of urinary tract infections.
- Reduced time spent on bowel management: On average, users spend 15-30 minutes on bowel management every day or every other day.
- Overall improved quality of life: Better health and improved well-being in general.
Bowel irrigation represents a treatment option when other methods like diet, therapy or toilet training have failed to result in adequate improvements of the bowel function.
What to be aware of when using bowel irrigation products
When using bowel irrigation, there are a few rules to be followed:
- Use only after assessment and training from a qualified healthcare professional.
- A rectal examination prior to the first irrigation.
- Always follow the instructions for use. This will reduce the risk of bowel perforation, which, although rare, is a potential complication of using irrigation. If this occurs, seek immediate medical attention.
- To ensure bowel irrigation is a successful procedure, any changes (such as amount of water used or the frequency of irrigation) should always be done as directed by a healthcare professional
Some minor side effects might occur, such as abdominal pain, nausea, light bleeding or fatigue.
Who can benefit from bowel irrigation?
Bowel irrigation is reported to be beneficial in managing bowel disorders such as chronic faecal incontinence and/or constipation.
If the bowel dysfunction is caused by one of the following conditions, it is often possible to gain control of the bowel function with the use of irrigation:
- Passive faecal incontinence
- Post defecation seepage
- Rectocele
- Incomplete evacuation
- Evacuation difficulties
- Low anterior resection syndrome (LARS)
- Urgency faecal incontinence
- Constipation (slow transit/idiopathic/ opioid induced/IBS-C)
- Neurogenic (spinal cord injury, upper motor neuron/MS/Parkinson’s/spina bifida/ cauda equina)
Learn more
Understanding bowel irrigation
Bowel irrigation simply involves instilling warm tap water into the rectum via the anus to help emptying the colon.
Bowel care products
We believe everyone deserves the right to bowel irrigation solutions that fit seamlessly into their lives.
Bowel Buddies
Bowel Buddies is a game designed to help when your child starts with bowel irrigation