Background: Fecal incontinence causes a big impact on patient's quality of life. Our study analyzed the main questionnaires about fecal incontinence available internationally, aiming to delineate vantages and limitations of these instruments and their application, to mention the cultural aspects involved in the process of development and validation, as well as to suggest a reflection about the complexity of this matter. Results: Four of the instruments (Pescatori score, FISI, MSKCC bowel function instrument, and LARS score) do not include quality of life, working only as diagnostic tools. Two others, ‘Jorge and Wexner Fecal Incontinence score’, and ‘St Marks’ Fecal incontinence grading system’ can diagnose and grade fecal incontinence, however they are very subtle in assessing quality of life. The ‘EORTC Colorectal Cancer-specific’, on the other hand, focuses exclusively on quality of life. Although the ‘FIQL’ questionnaire assesses quality of life related to fecal incontinence, it does not measure leakage. Lastly, the ‘RAFIS’ assesses both aspects but too superficially. Conclusion: None of the questionnaires analyzed were able to simultaneously assess both fecal incontinence and quality of life successfully. Furthermore, the concepts related to fecal incontinence have different meanings depending on the cultural and psychosocial context. These differences are even greater when individuals of developed countries like the ones where these questionnaires were developed are compared to the ones of developing countries, such as Brazil, which makes its very hard for these instruments to be used universally.

Purpose: This study was performed to investigate the convergent validity, discriminative validity, and reliability of the Brazilian version of the low anterior resection syndrome (LARS) score in a population with low educational and socioeconomic levels.Methods: The LARS score was translated into the Portuguese language by forward- and back-translation procedures. In total, 127 patients from a public hospital in Brazil completed the questionnaires. The convergent validity was tested by comparing the LARS score with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire Core Module 30 (QLQ-C30) and with patients’ self-reported quality of life. For the discriminative validity, we tested the ability of the score to differentiate among subgroups of patients regarding neoadjuvant radiotherapy, type of surgery, and tumor distance from the anal verge. The test-retest reliability was investigated in a subgroup of 36 patients who responded to the survey twice in 2 weeks.Results: The LARS score demonstrated a strong correlation with 5 of 6 items from the EORTC QLQ-C30 (P<0.05) and good concordance with patients’ self-reported quality of life (95.3%), confirming the convergent validity. The score was able to discriminate between subgroups of patients with different clinical characteristics related to LARS (P<0.001). The agreement between the test and retest showed that 86.1% of the patients remained in the same LARS category, and there was no significant difference between the LARS score numerical values (P=0.80), indicating good reliability overall.Conclusion: The Brazilian version of the LARS score is a valid and reliable instrument to assess postoperative bowel function in a population with low educational and socioeconomic levels.

Purpose Anal incontinence is a very stigmatizing condition, which affects biopsychosocially the patient. It is a neglected, but quite common complication of obstetric and anorectal surgery, however it has treatment options. None of the treatment options have exceptional efficacy rates and still associated with risk of recurrence. The surgery techniques known are: anterior and posterior shortening procedure; post-anal repair; anterior elevator plasty and external sphincter plication; total pelvic floor repair and sphincter repair. None of them use a flap rotation of adipose tissue. The purpose is to propose a new surgery technique of anal sphincteroplasty, which uses flap rotation, for severe perineal deformity associated with anal incontinence. Methods Patient with severe perineal deformity and anal incontinence treated with a new surgery technique of sphincteroplasty with flap rotation. Results The severe perineal deformity was corrected with both esthetic and functional results. Anal continence measured by Wexner and Jorge assessment in a follow-up period of 2 years after the intervention. Pictures and video show esthetic and functional aspects. Conclusion This is the first time that a flap rotation is used to treat a severe perineal deformity. And the technique presented promising outcomes, which allows perineum reconstruction that is similar to the original anatomy. Therefore, this technique is justified to better evaluate its efficiency and the impact on patients’ prognosis.

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Objectives  Anal sphincteroplasty with Deoti's flap is a recently published procedure for the treatment of fecal incontinence with severe perineal deformity. The aim of this study is to report six cases of patients, analyzing their results in fecal incontinence questionnaires and proposing a new scale to better assess our technique's main objective, the reconstruction of the perianal anatomy. Methods  Six patients were submitted to anal sphincteroplasty with Deoti's flap and follow-up was performed every six months. Functional results and Quality of Life were measured by Wexner Score and Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale, respectively. Results  All operations were carried out without failure to perform Deoti's flap rotation. The sample presented medians of 18.5 and 3.5 on Wexner Score, before and after surgery, respectively. In the Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale, the medians before and after surgery are, respectively, 1.75 and 3.35 (Scale 1), 1.54 and 2.60 (Scale 2), 2.35 and 3.28 (Scale 3), 1.49 and 3.33 (Scale 4). The p -values were 0.0173 for Wexner Score and 0.0260, 0.0411, 0.0368 and 0.0952 for Scales 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale, respectively. All patients presented sustained improvement in Wexner Score and in quality of life questionnaire (in all scales of Fecal Incontinence Quality of Life Scale). Conclusions  Deoti's surgical flap with sphincteroplasty successfully reconstructs complex anatomical deformities of the perineum. Current questionnaires to assess fecal incontinence may not evaluate properly the anatomical result of the technique, thus we propose a visual scale. In addition, sphincteroplasty with Deoti's flap may have longer-term outcomes in functional results than sphincteroplasty alone.