The effect of abdominal massage on bowel function in patients with spinal cord injury

Objectives: To investigate the effect of abdominal massage on clinical aspects of bowel dysfunction and colonic transit time in patients with spinal cord injury. Twenty-four patients were placed on a standard bowel program (phase I), after which abdominal massage was added to the regimen (phase II). Parameters of gastrointestinal system function and colonic transit times were evaluated. Design: Uncontrolled clinical study. Results: Eleven (45.8%) of the 24 patients had abdominal distention, and 10 (41.7%) had fecal incontinence in phase 1; corresponding results for phase 11 were three (12.5%) and four (16.7%) (P = 0.008 and 0.031, respectively). There were no significant differences between the proportions of patients with difficult intestinal evacuation or abdominal pain or in mean time required for bowel evacuation in phase I vs. phase II. The mean frequencies of defecation in phases I and 11 were 3.79 +/- 2.15 (2.75-4.55) and 4.61 +/- 2.17 (3.67-5.54) bowel movements per week, respectively (P = 0.006). Mean total colonic transit time decreased from 90.60 +/- 32.67 (75.87-110.47) hrs in phase 1 to 72 +/- 34.10 (58.49-94.40) hrs in phase II (P = 0.035). Conclusions: Abdominal massage has positive effects on some clinical aspects of neurogenic bowel dysfunction in patients with spinal cord injury.