Hey, I am Marcy from brain&spinalcord.org. Let us talk about some information on bladder and bowel control for the spinal cord injury survivors. Be sure to check the website for all relevant links and recap of this article.
Issues with bladder and bowel control are two of the most of frequent problems that experienced by survivors to spinal cord injury, and almost all spinal cord injuries, even those that are relatively minor, there are some loss of control or complete loss control bladder and bowels.
Let us talk about bladder as first, and then we will move on to bowel issues.
In many cases, people who experience any level of paralysis as a result of spinal cord injury loose control of their bladder. A healthy individual feels the need to empty his or her bladder when it becomes full, but many survivors of spinal cord injury no longer feel that urge.
When this urge is no longer present, one of two things can happen. The survivor can experience a spastic bladder or he or she can experience a flaccid bladder.
A spastic bladder empties on its own without the person having any control over where or when it empties. A flaccid bladder on the other hand does not void. Instead, the urine builds up in the bladder and stretches its walls.
The results can sometimes be dire and include urine that backs up into the kidneys as well as urinary track infections.
To avoid the complications such as infections, it is important for the survivor to follow a bladder care protocol. This protocol includes monitoring himself or herself for the signs of bacterial infection, drinking plenty of fluids and frequently emptying the bladder.
How does a spinal cord injury survivor empty his or her bladder if he or she cannot feel it is full? There are several methods.
These include Intermittent Catheterization, Indwelling Catheterization and External Condom Catheterization. Let us go over these one by one.
An Intermittent Catheter is one of those used recording to a regular schedule designed to keep the bladder completely empty to put simply thin hallowed tube as inserted into the urethra, allowing the urine to be drained from the bladder.
An Indwelling Catheter allows the survivor to go about his or her day without worrying about adhering to a strict bladder emptying schedule that is because an indwelling catheter remains continually in place. Once the catheter is put into place, a balloon still with water so that it would not fall out.
The third option is for male patients only. This is the External Condom Catheter. Similar to an indwelling catheter, this kind of catheter remains continually in place, the difference is that this kind of catheter is kept in place by a special kind of condom.
Now that we talked about bladder issues, let us move on to bowel issues. Spinal cord issues result in a lost of bowel function and similar to the bladder, bowel issues fall into the categories of spastic or flaccid.
Spastic bowels empty on their own without warning while flaccid bowels are sluggish. Learning how to empty and manage the bowels after spinal cord injury is an important part of the rehabilitation process. The process is different depending on whether the bowels are categorized as spastic or flaccid.
Flaccid bowels require manual emptying while spastic bowels require combination of scheduled, digital stimulation and stool softeners. While bladder and bowel control are major issues associated spinal cord injury with the right care program, these issues can be easily handled by the survivor.
This concludes our segment on bladder and bowel control for spinal cord injuries survivors. Remember to check our website for the most up to date information including resources and tips regarding brain and spinal cord injuries, and thanks again for watching.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services