Fecal impaction feels like constant abdominal pain, bloating, and a feeling of fullness or rectal pressure, with an inability to pass solid stool, often accompanied by overflow diarrhea (liquid stool leaking around the hard blockage). You might feel the urge to go but can't, experience nausea, headache, and even bladder issues or back pain from straining. A doctor can feel a hard mass in the rectum during an exam.
Discomfort from the pressure includes:
Constipation can cause a lot of uncomfortable symptoms, including stomach pain and pressure or gas. Constipation can also cause nausea and dizziness, especially if you're also dehydrated. The nausea that comes along with constipation may feel like persistent queasiness or an unsettled stomach.
Bowel obstructions usually cause cramping abdominal pain, vomiting and inability to pass bowel motions (faeces or poo) or gas. A bowel obstruction is an emergency and needs treatment in hospital to prevent serious complications. You may need surgery or another procedure to remove the blockage.
Distinguishing between constipation and an intestinal blockage is key to proper treatment. Symptoms like abdominal pain, vomiting, and a swollen belly can indicate a blockage. Not being able to pass gas or poop is a key symptom that requires medical attention.
Symptoms of bowel obstruction include:
Pseudo-obstruction
The four cardinal symptoms of bowel obstruction are pain, vomiting, obstipation/absolute constipation, and distention. Obstipation, change in bowel habits, complete constipation, and abdominal distention are the predominant symptoms in LBO. Vomiting occurs late in the course of the desease.
The 3-6-9 rule is a guideline for interpreting abdominal X-rays to detect bowel obstruction, stating normal upper limits are 3 cm for the small bowel, 6 cm for the large bowel (colon), and 9 cm for the cecum; diameters exceeding these suggest dilation, a key sign of obstruction, with larger measurements increasing the risk of rupture (e.g., >6cm small bowel, >9cm cecum).
Common symptoms are nausea and vomiting, crampy abdominal pain or discomfort, stomach distention, constipation and inability to pass gas (fart).
All plants have fiber, but some help more than others. Fruits that start with the letter “p,” coincidentally, tend to help the most: peaches, plums, pears, pineapple, papaya and — the granddaddy of them all — prunes. “It really is true. Prune juice is the best,” says Dr. Waasdorp Hurtado.
Key Symptoms of Gastric Vertigo
Feeling like the room is spinning. Stomach bloating or gas. Nausea or vomiting. Sudden weakness after meals.
Straining or pain when passing stools. A feeling that not all stool has passed. A feeling that the rectum is blocked. The need to use a finger to pass stool.
The simplest way to think of it is that “constipation” describes symptoms (such as hard stools or irregular bowel habits), whereas “fecal impaction” describes a physical state of the colon (impacted with feces).
Symptoms of a bowel perforation include:
If a diagnosis of constipation is suspected, ask about:
Any red flag symptoms or signs that may suggest a serious underlying cause, such as colorectal cancer. These include a sudden change in bowel habit, rectal bleeding or bloody stools, weight loss, abdominal pain or iron deficiency anaemia.
An obstruction typically feels like severe cramping pain in your abdomen. The pain from a small bowel obstruction is more likely to come in short intermittent waves, occurring every few minutes or so. The pain is more likely to feel concentrated in one place.
A CT scan combines a series of X-ray images taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional images. These images are more detailed than a standard X-ray, and are more likely to show an intestinal obstruction.
Ileus refers to the intolerance of oral intake due to inhibition of the gastrointestinal propulsion without signs of mechanical obstruction. The diagnosis is often associated with surgery, medications, trauma, peritonitis, or severe illness.
Symptoms of intestinal obstruction are:
Symptoms of volvulus
Common signs and symptoms of a twisted colon include the following: Abdominal pain (intermittent or constant) Bloating and distension (swelling of the belly) Inability to pass gas.
Clinicians should consider a foreign body or bezoar in the differential for unexplained intermittent bowel obstruction symptoms. Phytobezoars can occur from undigested plant or food material, and generally require endoscopic evaluation for diagnosis and potential treatment.
The most common symptoms of fecal impaction are as follows: Abdominal pain (often after meals) The ongoing urge to pass stool. Liquid stool (most often means stool is leaking around the impacted mass)
Intestinal pseudo-obstruction is a condition characterized by impairment of the muscle contractions that move food through the digestive tract. It can occur at any time of life, and its symptoms range from mild to severe.
Typically, patients with ventral hernias describe mild pain, aching or a pressure sensation at the site of the hernia. The discomfort worsens with any activity that puts a strain on the abdomen, such as heavy lifting, running or bearing down during bowel movements. Some patients have a bulge but do not have discomfort.