Objectives
Our primary objective was to determine the association between rectocele size on defecography and physical examination in symptomatic patients. Our secondary objective was to describe the associations between both defecography and physical examination findings with defecatory symptoms and progression to surgical repair of rectocele.
Methods
We performed a retrospective review of all patients referred to a female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery clinic with a diagnosis of rectocele based on defecography and/or physical examination at a single institution from 2003 to 2017. Patients who did not have defecatory symptoms, did not undergo defecography imaging, or did not have a physical examination in a female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery clinic within 12 months of defecography imaging were excluded.
Results
Of 200 patients, 181 (90.5%) had a rectocele diagnosed on defecography and 170 (85%) had a rectocele diagnosed on physical examination. Pearson and Spearman tests of correlation both showed a positive relationship between the rectocele size on defecography and rectocele stage on physical examination; however, one was not reliable to predict the results of the other (Pearson correlation = 0.25; Spearman ρ = 0.29). The strongest predictor of surgery was rectocele stage on physical examination (P < 0.001). Size of rectocele on defecography was not a strong independent predictor for surgery (P = 0.01), although its significance improved with the addition of splinting (P = 0.004).
Conclusions
Our results suggest that rectocele on defecography does not necessarily equate to rectocele on physical examination in patients with defecatory symptoms. Rectocele on physical examination was more predictive for surgery than rectocele on defecography.
Importance The importance of this study is to explore potential differences in pathophysiologies of OAB-wet and OAB-dry.Objectives The aim of this study was to define fundamental and unique presenting features of patients exhibiting storage lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) with urgency incontinence (OAB-wet) and patients without urgency incontinence (OAB-dry).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.