The effect of a physiotherapy intervention on intestinal motility

[Purpose] It is important to facilitate intestinal motility in patients with reduced bowel movement through physiotherapy. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of passive exercise of the lower limbs and trunk (PELT) and combination therapies (COM) with those of conventional thermotherapy (TT) on bowel sounds (BSs) in healthy adult subjects. Since autonomic activity (AA) significantly influences intestinal motility, we also investigated the relation between intestinal motility and AA by measurement of BSs. [Subjects] The subjects were 16 healthy adult males. [Methods] The subjects were randomly assigned to 3 different physiotherapies, and BSs and sympathetic nerve activity were measured before and after the physiotherapies. [Results] While BSs significantly increased following all physiotherapies, the temporal changes in BSs were different among the physiotherapies. AA measurement showed that PELT and TT significantly decreased the heart rate. While the high-frequency (HF) component was increased in all physiotherapy groups, the increases in HF did not reach statistical significance. There were no significant correlations between BSs and AA. [Conclusion] We found that all of the tested physiotherapies increased BSs, suggesting that they are clinically useful for treatment of patients with reduced intestinal motility due to limited spontaneous movement or inability to rise up from bed.