Spinal Cord Injury: Gastrointestinal Implications and Management

For persons with spinal cord injury, gastrointestinal disorders have a major impact on medical morbidity, maintenance of body image, need for caregiver support, and hospital discharge destination. Difficulties in achieving bowel continence have an impact on virtually every aspect of life; interfering with fulfillment of interpersonal, sexual, and employment roles. Strategies for management of SCI-related bowel disorders should take advantage of the considerable amount of normal, residual function that exists in the gastrointestinal tract, even after the most serious spinal cord injury.