Relationship between Episiotomy and Fecal Incontinence After Delivery

Introduction: fecal incontinence (fi) is an embarrassing problem that reduces a woman’s quality of life. the literature has shown that women with obstetric trauma, especially by episiotomy, suffer damage to both the internal and external anal sphincters. we aimed to determine the relationship between episiotomy and fi in women after delivery. methods: in this study, 71 females with previous vaginal deliveries were investigated by endoanal ultrasonography. the degree of fi was measured using the incontinence score of wexner. the number of episiotomies was measured for each patient. results: the mean wexner score was 9.0±0.7 in the incontinent patients. the mean number of normal vaginal deliveries was 3.48±0.3, and 33.8% of the patients had a history of a hemorrhoidectomy. among the patients, 70% had undergone one or more prior episiotomies during their deliveries. conclusion: episiotomy could be one of the risk factors for the development of fi, but we did not find any significant difference in wexner scores between patients with or without a history of episiotomy. endoanal sonography seems an effective tool for evaluating and predicting anal injury following an episiotomy in some critical cases.