For impacted stool, polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions (like Miralax, Movicol) are often ideal oral laxatives, working by drawing water into the colon to soften the mass over 1-3 days, but stimulant laxatives (like bisacodyl, senna) or suppositories might be used for faster results, while enemas and manual removal by a professional are for severe cases, and you should always consult a doctor before treating impaction.
Senokot and Dulcolax are both stimulant laxatives. And they both work within 6 to 12 hours when taken orally. Dulcolax suppositories work faster — usually within 15 to 60 minutes.
Let your doctor or nurse know if you have any changes in your bowel habits. If you think you have an impaction, don't take any laxatives without first discussing it with your doctor or specialist nurse. Laxatives that stimulate the bowel can cause severe cramping and might damage your bowel.
By acting directly in the rectum, Dulcolax® Suppositories work by stimulating your natural bowel movement and softening stools for fast & effective relief from occasional constipation in as little as 15 to 60 minutes.
A warm tap water enema is often used to soften and lubricate the stool. You may need more than one enema to help. The mass may have to be broken up by hand.
Try These Tricks for Quick Bowel Movement Stimulation
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).
When you have a fecal impaction, you'll need to have the hard mass of stool removed from your colon or rectum to get better. It won't go away on its own, and it can lead to death if it's allowed to worsen.
Prescription laxatives that treat chronic constipation include:
Dulcolax has an average rating of 5.4 out of 10 from a total of 1178 ratings on Drugs.com. 39% of reviewers reported a positive effect, while 40% reported a negative effect. Senokot S has an average rating of 8.7 out of 10 from a total of 6 ratings on Drugs.com.
Constipation means hard, infrequent bowel movements and mild discomfort. An intestinal blockage has severe symptoms like not passing gas or stool, intense pain, and vomiting. If you have severe symptoms, get medical help right away.
Symptoms
Although bowel movement frequency varies greatly for each person, if more than three days pass without a bowel movement, the contents in the intestines may harden, making it difficult or even painful to pass. Straining during bowel movements or the feeling of incomplete emptying also may be considered constipation.
Laxatives, Stool Softeners, and Other Products
They will help you pass stool more easily. Your provider may prescribe a laxative to relieve your constipation. It may be a pill or liquid. Do not take it if you have severe stomach pain, nausea, or vomiting.
MiraLAX is the #1 doctor recommended laxative for occasional use, providing effective, predictable and gentle constipation relief.
What's the difference between fecal impaction and constipation? Constipation is when it's difficult to poop. Constant and untreated constipation causes fecal impaction, when there's a buildup of poop that you're unable to naturally pass.
But laxatives don't always work. In this case, you may have chronic constipation. Or, your constipation could be severe enough that more intensive methods are needed to resolve it. People should seek help from a healthcare provider if lifestyle changes and laxatives aren't working.
A more rapid and forceful form of constipation treatment, stimulant laxatives like bisacodyl or senna get to work by directly stimulating the walls of your intestines, causing them to contract more frequently and powerfully to get stubborn stools moving through your digestive system.
A doctor may prescribe conspitation medications if other treatments don't work. They include: Medications that draw fluid to intestines. Lubiprostone, linaclotide, and plecanatide work by increasing the amount of fluid within intestines and making the passage of stool easier.
In most mild cases, administration of an enema is sufficient; but in severe cases, one may need to perform manual disimpaction in the operating room. The patient will usually need some type of anesthesia to relax the anal sphincter complex before the fecal impaction can be removed.
Persistently gray or clay-colored stools suggest some type of obstruction to the flow of bile.
Eat more fiber to relieve constipation.
If you're dealing with occasional constipation, upping your fiber intake for a few days to get back onto a more normal-for-you bowel movement schedule can be sufficient.
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.
Pseudo-obstruction
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.