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Maximum anal sphincter strength measured by the solid sphere test and anal pressure profiles
K Haadem1, J A Dahlström, L Ling
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Malmö General Hospital, Sweden.
Objective:
To evaluate two methods of quantifying external anal sphincter function.
Design:
Open study.
Setting:
Helsingborg Hospital, Sweden.
Subjects:
73 patients (63 women and 10 men), of whom 25 were incontinent of gas and liquid or solid stool.
Interventions:
Anal pressure profiles and the "solid sphere" test.
Outcome Measure:
Correlation between results of tests and presence of incontinence.
Results:
Continent patients were younger than incontinent ones. The correlation between the maximum force the patient could retain and the maximum anal squeeze pressure was good (r = 0.67, p < 0.001). Younger continent patients (n = 48) and significantly higher pressures than incontinent patients (n = 25), but the range and overlap were wide. The reproducibility of both methods was good.
Conclusions:
Although the solid sphere test is easier and quicker to do, anal pressure profiles yield more information that is important in the evaluation of incontinence.
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