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Implications for practice and research
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Currently, there is insufficient evidence to make conclusions regarding the efficacy and safety of biofeedback for patients with chronic constipation.
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Further, well-designed randomised controlled trials are needed to allow definitive conclusions to be drawn.
Context
Most patients with chronic constipation respond to conservative and pharmacological treatments. However, a minority of patients are refractory to treatment, one of the reasons being abnormalities of defaecation characterised by inability to relax the striated muscles which facilitate defaecation and/or ineffective defaecatory propulsive forces. Biofeedback, which employs instrumental learning through visual or auditory feedback using anorectal manometry or electromyography, has been recommended to improve muscle coordination in selected patients and …
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.