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External kinesiology tape for improvement in fecal incontinence symptom bother in women: a pilot study

  • Original Article
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Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis

Fecal incontinence is a debilitating condition with a devastating impact on quality of life. Using a commercially available kinesiology band we developed an anal tape to be applied to the anus with the aim to determine its impact on symptom bother and quality of life.

Methods

Four-week prospective, self-controlled, pilot study of patients with FI. The primary outcome was improvement in any of the four domains (lifestyle, coping/behavior, depression/self-perception, embarrassment) evaluated by the “Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale.” Secondary outcomes included improvement in frequency of incontinence events and safety. Days 0–14 served as control period and days 15–28 as study period. Patients were asked to rate their satisfaction and willingness to use the device in the future using a 10-cm continuous visual analog scale.

Results

Twenty patients completed the study. Median age was 64 years; all patients were females. Significant improvements were observed in all domains of the Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale from baseline to day 28 (p < 0.001 for all) and in three of four domains between day 15 and 28 (p < 0.04) but not between days 1 and 14. Five patients (25%) had a ≥ 50% improvement in incontinence events. Patients reported satisfaction and willingness to use the anal tape in the future. Other than mild difficulty to remove the anal tape, no adverse events were reported.

Conclusions

In this small pilot study, the use of the anal tape was safe and effective. The primary outcome of significant improvement in quality of life was achieved (ClinicalTrials.gov ID:NCT02989545).

Public trial registry

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02989545. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02989545

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Availability of data and material

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Not applicable.

Abbreviations

EAUS:

Endoanal ultrasound

FI :

Fecal incontinent

FIQoLS :

Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale

IQR:

Interquartile range

MICD:

Minimum clinically important difference

OASIS:

Obstetric anal sphincter injuries

QoL:

Quality of life

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Funding

No external funding was used for this study; all costs were covered by the internal budget of our department.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Joseph Lysy

    Present address: The Neurogastroenterology and Pelvic Floor Unit, Digestive Diseases Institute, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 12 Baiyt St., Jerusalem, Israel

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Digestive Diseases Institute, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Dan M. Livovsky, Benjamin Koslowsky, Eran Goldin & Joseph Lysy

  2. The Neurogastroenterology and Pelvic Floor Unit, Digestive Diseases Institute, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 12 Baiyt St., Jerusalem, Israel

    Dan M. Livovsky

Authors
  1. Dan M. Livovsky
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  2. Benjamin Koslowsky
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Contributions

Dan M Livovsky: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis of results; Conducting of investigations; Conceptualization of methodology, Writing of manuscript. This author has approved the final draft submitted.

Benjamin Koslowsky: Data curation; Review and editing of original draft.

Eran Goldin: Funding acquisition (internal, no external founding was used in this study): supervisor of the project, administrator of resources.

Joseph Lysy: Original idea and concept, data curation; Analysis of data; Funding acquisition; Conducted investigation and responsible for patient care; Methodology review; Project administration: supervision of project: review and editing of original draft.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dan M. Livovsky.

Ethics declarations

Potential competing interests

None.

Ethics approval

The study protocol conforms to the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki and was approved, a priori, by the ethics review board of ShaareZedek Medical Center (approval date and number: 21/02/2016; 0229–16-SZMC).

Consent to participate

Witten informed consent was obtained from all patients before participation in any of the study procedures.

Grant support

No finical support was obtained for this study.

Financial support

None.

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Livovsky, D.M., Koslowsky, B., Goldin, E. et al. External kinesiology tape for improvement in fecal incontinence symptom bother in women: a pilot study. Int Urogynecol J 33, 2859–2868 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-021-05050-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-021-05050-z

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