Abdominal Pain: A Comparison between Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction and Chronic Idiopathic Constipation

Table 2

Bowel function. Cleveland Constipation Score is listed as the total score as well as the individual 8 items of the score.

	Spinal cord injury, n = 21	Chronic idiopathic constipation, n = 15	P value
Total gastrointestinal transit time, median (range), score 0–6.5	3.6 (1.3–6.4)	2.8 (1.3–6.4)	0.48
Cleveland Constipation Score, median (range), score 0–30	11 (4–16)	15 (9–25)	0.01
Frequency of bowel movements, n
1-2 times per 1-2 days	16	5	<0.000
2 times per week	4	0
Once per week	1	7
Less than once per week	0	2
Less than once per month	0	1
Difficulty: painful evacuation effort, n
Never	13	3	0.021
Rarely	4	1
Sometimes	2	3
Usually	1	4
Always	1	4
Completeness: feeling incomplete evacuation, n
Never	7	1	0.28
Rarely	2	1
Sometimes	4	2
Usually	2	3
Always	6	8
Pain: abdominal pain, n
Never	7	2	0.41
Rarely	3	1
Sometimes	4	2
Usually	5	6
Always	2	4
Time: minutes in lavatory per attempt, n
Less than 5	1	2	0.69
5–10	6	4
10–20	3	4
20–30	6	2
More than 30	5	3
Assistance: type of assistance
Without assistance	3	3	0.001
Oral laxatives	3	10
Digital assistance or enema	15	2
Failure: unsuccessful attempts for evacuation per 24 hours
Never	11	11	0.39
1–3	9	4
3–6	0	0
6–9	0	0
More than 9	1	0
History: duration of constipation (years)
0	3	1	0.26
1–5	9	4
5–10	4	2
10–20	1	5
More than 20	4	3