Fecal Impaction: What It Is and How It's Treated (2024)

FAQs

Fecal Impaction: What It Is and How It's Treated? ›

You usually get it from being constipated, when you don't drink enough fluids, and when you lack fiber. Symptoms include long-term constipation, stomach pain, and bloating. Treatments range from laxatives, suppositories, and enemas to surgery for serious cases of fecal impaction.

Fecal impaction is when a hard, dry mass of stool becomes stuck in the colon or rectum. If laxatives and suppositories do not help, enema, water irrigation, or manual evacuation may be necessary.

Sitting correctly on the toilet and using this technique can help you empty your bowel more easily. Lean forward on the toilet with your forearms resting on your thighs, your legs more than hip width apart and your feet raised up on a small foot stool. Repeat for up to 10 minutes only or until your bowel has emptied.

Will impacted stool eventually come out? Impacted stool often doesn't come out on its own and requires medical treatment to prevent potentially serious complications.

A range of dietary and lifestyle changes like eating more fiber, staying hydrated, and exercising more may help. If you have severe symptoms, taking laxatives or other OTC medications can help activate your digestive system. Be sure to reach out to a healthcare provider if you often have difficult bowel movements.

How long does it take to clear faecal impaction? After you start treatment, such as a laxative, a very watery poo should pass after 2-7 days. Do not carry on with treatment with laxatives for longer than 2 weeks, see your GP again.

A lubricated, gloved index finger is inserted into the rectum and the hardened stool is gently broken up using a scissoring motion. The finger is then moved in a circular manner, bent slightly and removed, extracting stool with it. This maneuver is repeated until the rectum is cleared of hardened stool.

People with poop stuck halfway out may feel tempted to strain to push the feces out. However, straining can damage the veins in the rectum and cause or worsen hemorrhoids. People who experience difficulty passing a bowel movement should also avoid trying to remove feces with their fingers.

A provider will need to insert one or two fingers into the rectum and slowly break up the mass into smaller pieces so that it can come out. This process must be done in small steps to avoid causing injury to the rectum. Suppositories inserted into the rectum may be given between attempts to help clear the stool.

How do you push out a big hard stool? ›

Bulge your tummy muscles forward as you take a deep breath in. 'Brace' your tummy to prevent it from bulging further forwards. Do not tighten your tummy. Use your deep breath to increase the pressure in your abdomen and push down towards your anus.

Crouching on a chair

Sitting a certain way for seven seconds is not proven to help constipation. However, changing your body posture while on the toilet can make things easier. Place your feet on a stool to place your knees higher than your hips.

Home remedies include increasing your fiber intake or taking a laxative, using a suppository, or taking a stool softener. Trying out a squat position, doing light exercise, or performing a colonic massage may also help. A doctor can check for other conditions affecting constipation and prescribe medication to help.

Insert a lubricated, gloved finger into your rectum. Sweep their finger around or through the stool to break it up into smaller pieces. Remove pieces of stool to clear the blockage.

There are various reasons why your stool might be stuck and painful to pass. Depending on the cause, you can try eating more fiber to soften your stool or use an over-the-counter softener like Miralax. Exercise and abdominal massage might also help.

(Chronic laxative use may cause constipation, so consult with a healthcare provider before using them.) Can you still poop with an impaction? You usually will not poop if you are experiencing fecal impaction. If you do, the stool you pass will be watery, or very hard and small, or you may experience stool leakage.

Symptoms of faecal impaction

back pain due to the mass of poo pressing on the nerves in your lower back (the sacral nerves) a swollen tummy (abdomen) high or low blood pressure. a fast heart rate.

Once fecal impaction occurs, the intestine will not be able to remove the feces from the body through the normal contraction process. Hence, it's typically impossible to excrete wastes from the body, defecate, or poop with impacted feces.

A: It can be, but most often is not. “It would be an emergency if you hadn't had a bowel movement for a prolonged time, and you're also experiencing major bloating or severe abdominal pain,” notes Dr. Zutshi. Slight symptoms will not take you to the emergency room.

For example, the laxatives that will help you poop fastest (within minutes or hours) are enemas and suppositories that inject the medicine directly into your anus. But there are tradeoffs. These types have a greater risk of side effects, like diarrhea and stomach cramps.