Fecal Incontinence Clinical Trials

Bowel issues occur in nearly all people after spinal cord injury (SCI) and one major complication is fecal incontinence (accidents). This complication has been repeatedly highlighted by people living with SCI as particularly life-limiting and in need of more options for interventions. This study will test the effect of genital nerve stimulation (GNS), with non-invasive electrodes, on the activity of the anus and rectum of persons after SCI. Recording anorectal manometry (ARM) endpoints tells us the function of those tissues and our study design (ARM without stim, ARM with stim, ARM without stim) will allow us to conclude the GNS effect and whether it is likely to reduce fecal incontinence. The study will also collect medical, demographic, and bowel related functional information. The combination of all of these data should help predict who will respond to stimulation, what will happen when stimulation is applied, and if that stimulation is likely to provide an improvement in fecal continence for people living with SCI. Read Less

This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of a single injection of iltamiocel (300 x 10^6 cells) compared to a placebo in the reduction of fecal incontinence episode frequency in adult female participants with chronic fecal incontinence and a history of obstetric anal sphincter injury. Half of the participants will receive iltamiocel (injections with cells) and the other half will receive placebo. Read Less

To regenerate functional anal sphincter muscle using muscle fiber fragments that contain muscle precursor cells (MPCs) Read Less

Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) have neurogenic bowel disorders which is associated with significant morbidity. The negative impact of bowel complications is often at the top of the list of problems reported by persons with SCI. Despite the magnitude of the problem of bowel dysfunction in persons with SCI, and the associated reduction in quality of life, this condition has yet to be effectively treated. The investigators have developed a novel dual drug combination to elicit a safe and predictable bowel evacuation (BE). The ability to move the bowel contents along to the rectum was severely impaired primary because of poor gut contractions on the left side of the colon, as shown by our team of investigators. To address this problem, a dual medication combination (neostigmine and glycopyrrolate) was developed that safely and predictably caused the bowel to empty after delivering these drugs into a vein (intravenously) or into the muscle bed (intramuscularly). Because no one likes needles, and because of the practical limits of administering medications on a routine basis by the use of needles, especially in persons with SCI because of their other health considerations, the investigators have devised a new approach: driving these medications across the skin and into the circulation of the body by applying an electrical current that is too small to feel (iontophoresis). The proposed research project to determine the safety of positively charged compounds (e.g., vitamin B12, NEO, and GLY) administered transcutaneously by the prototype wireless ION device and to compare the pharmacokinetic profiles of transcutaneous administration of NEO and GLY by the wireless ION device to a commercially available wired ION device. The potential administration of any number of other positively charged agents by this wireless prototype may be a clinically relevant outcome of this work. The ability to use a wireless ION device is far more practical for patients to use, especially those with SCI, which will permit the self-administration of these agents in the home setting to induce a bowel evacuation. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of fiber supplementation on the fecal metagenome and metabolome in relation to symptoms and anorectal physiology in post-menopausal women with irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea suffering from liquid stool fecal incontinence (FI.) Read Less

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about how the duration of use of The Leva Pelvic Health System® affects treatment of fecal incontinence in women. The main question it aims to answer is to test whether use of the The Leva Pelvic Health System® for 8 weeks is as good as using it for 16 weeks. Participants will complete surveys, and use the Leva device. Read Less

To collect physiological signals at several timepoints during the therapy evaluation period. Read Less

This is first-in-human prospective Phase I study of the immediate and long-term safety of an implanted internal anal sphincter (IAS) bioengineered from autologous cells to treat subjects with severe passive FI who have failed standard treatments. Read Less

The study will be a double-blind randomized control trial comparing 4% lidocaine patch placed over the sacrum 3 minutes prior to a percutaneous nerve evaluation (PNE) procedure to a placebo patch in patients already scheduled to undergo a medically indicated percutaneous nerve evaluation (PNE). VAS pain score, The volume of injectable lidocaine used, Patient Satisfaction Score, rate of successful PNE (defined as successful placement of wire in the S3 spinal foramen), and the amplitude of perineal stimulation on a Likert scale will be collected immediately after the procedure. Patients will follow up in 1 week - as is standard of care with the PNE procedure. Adverse events such as pain or change in sensation will be recorded. Number of voids and incontinence episodes per day after the PNE procedure will be recorded. Overall satisfaction score will be recorded at that time. Rate of progression to Sacral nerve stimulator implantation will be collected. The investigators hypothesize that patients in the lidocaine patch group will experience significantly less pain at the time of PNE as measured by a lower change in VAS pain score when compared with the control group. Read Less

Biofeedback therapy is an effective treatment for the management of patients with dyssynergic defecation and constipation, urinary incontinence (UI), and fecal incontinence (FI). It is labor-intensive, costly, requires multiple office or hospital visits, is not easily available to the vast majority of patients in the community, and is not covered by many insurance companies. The purpose of this study is to Evaluate home biofeedback therapy for patients with either constipation and dyssynergic defecation or urinary leakage or stool leakage by assessing the efficacy and safety of a wireless anorectal biofeedback device, and a cellphone app-based and voice guided home biofeedback training system To compare the efficacy and safety of home biofeedback therapy system with the standard of care, office biofeedback therapy To assess the cost-effectiveness of home biofeedback therapy. Read Less

The objective is to determine the length-tension properties of the anal sphincters using Fecobionics in normal subjects and FI patients during anal distension and during simulated evacuation. Fecobionics has the consistency and shape of normal stool and can record pressures, cross-sectional area, orientation and viscoelastic properties of the anorectum and can map the geometric profiles during evacuation, and thereby provides multi-dimensional measurements of pressures, deformability, and topographic changes. Fecobionics combines several existing tests to provide novel insight into anorectal function. The purpose for the development was to overcome the technological controversies and disagreement between various tests and unphysiological test conditions. The aim was to imitate defecation as much as possible to the natural process. Fecobionics was developed to simulate stool and to provide the driving pressure and resulting deformations of stool along with a measure of an objective anorectal angle during defecation in a single examination. Fecobionics makes it possible to describe objectively, without disturbing the defecation process, the opening characteristics and pressure signatures during initial entry into the relaxing anal canal. The overall goal is to provide mechanistic understanding of defecation in health and defecatory disorders. It exceeds previous attempts to make artificial stool for evaluation of defecation (BET and FECOM) and integrates other technologies as well. It was designed to have a consistency and deformability of Type 4 (range type 3-5) on the Bristol stool form scale. The range from types 3-5 is found in 70% of normal subjects. A major novelty is that Fecobionics measures pressures in axial direction; i.e., in the flow direction. Read Less

Fecal Incontinence (FI) affects 40 million Americans, predominantly women and elderly. It is a major health care burden, significantly impairs quality of life and psychosocial function. FI is characterized by multifactorial dysfunction including lumbosacral neuropathy, anorectal sensori-motor dysfunction, and abnormal pelvic floor-brain innervation. A critical barrier to progress in the treatment of FI is the lack of RCTs, absence of mechanistically based non-invasive therapies that modify disease, and a lack of understanding on how treatments affect pathophysiology of FI. Consequently, most current remedies remain ineffective. Our long-term goal is to address the problem of lack of effective treatments for FI by investigating treatments that modulate neuronal perturbations and thereby improve sensory and motor control, and to understand the neurobiologic basis of these treatments. Our central hypothesis is that a novel, non-invasive treatment consisting of Translumbosacral Neuromodulation Therapy (TNT), using repetitive magnetic stimulation, will significantly improve FI in the short-term and long-term, by enhancing neural excitability and inducing neuroplasticity. Our approach is based on compelling pilot study which showed that TNT at 1 Hz frequency, significantly improved FI, by enhancing bidirectional gut- brain signaling, anal sphincter strength and rectal sensation compared to 5 or 15 Hz. Our objectives are to 1) investigate the efficacy, safety and optimal dose of a new treatment, TNT, in a sham controlled, randomized dose-dependent study in 132 FI patients; 2) determine the mechanistic basis for TNT by assessing the efferent and afferent pelvic floor-brain signaling, and sensori-motor function; 3) identify the durability of treatment response and effects of TNT, and whether reinforcement TNT provides augmented improvement, by performing a long-term, sham controlled randomized trial. Our expected outcomes include the demonstration of TNT as a durable, efficacious, safe, mechanistically based, non-invasive, and low risk treatment for FI. The impact of our project includes a novel, disease modifying, non-invasive treatment, a scientific basis for this treatment, and improved understanding of the pathophysiology of FI and how TNT modifies bidirectional gut and brain axes and anorectal function. Ultimately, the knowledge generated by this project will provide new avenues for the development of innovative, evidence-based therapies for FI. Read Less