Defecography in symptomatic older women living at home.
BACKGROUND
complaints of defecation disorders in older patients living at home is an emerging problem. Little is known about radiological examination of this population.


OBJECTIVE
this study aimed to analyse the yield of defecography in women older than 75 years, living at home and complaining of defecation disorders.


METHODS
prospective study of patients referred to a radiology department in a tertiary-care medical centre in Rouen, France.


METHODS
52 women (mean age: 78, range: 75-93) complaining of constipation, faecal incontinence or pelvic pain underwent defecography. Defecography was performed after intake of a barium meal and vaginal opacification. Radiographs were analysed accordingly with the established criteria.


RESULTS
defecography showed perineal descent in 27 patients, rectocele in 29, intussusception in 33 and enterocele in 14. A combination of abnormalities was found in 40 women. Only 3 studies were normal. There was no significant association between symptoms and pelvic disorders revealed by defecography.


CONCLUSIONS
defecography in symptomatic women aged 75 years and over did not raise any technical difficulty. It revealed a 77% rate of abnormalities, but there was no relationship between the symptoms and the detected abnormalities.
Radiology Department, Pr Jacques Thiebot, Quant-If, France. Aden, Rouen University Hospital Charles Nicolle, Rouen, France. savoyecel@hotmail.com
Céline
C
Savoye-Collet
Guillaume
G
Savoye
Edith
E
Koning
Anne-Marie
AM
Leroi
Jean-Nicolas
JN
Dacher
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003248:Constipation / Q000503:physiopathology; D003672:Defecation / Q000502:physiology; D019841:Defecography; D005242:Fecal Incontinence / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006547:Hernia / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007443:Intussusception / Q000175:diagnosis*; D020047:Rectocele / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology