Table 3.
Bristol Stool Form Scale in the present and a previous study
| Bristol Stool Form Scale | Pre-operative N = 26 |
Post-operative N = 26 |
P value | Heaton et al [12] N = 1897 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not recorded | P = 0.028b | |||
| n (%) | 1 (3.8 %)a | 3 (11.5 %)a | - | |
| 1. Separate hard lumps, like nuts | ||||
| n (%) | 0 | 3 (11.5 %) | 95 (8.1 %) | |
| 2. Sausage-shaped but lumpy | ||||
| n (%) | 2 (7.7 %) | 4 (15.4 %) | 153 (13.1 %) | |
| 3. Like a sausage or snake but with cracks on its surface | ||||
| n (%) | 1 (3.8 %) | 3 (11.5 %) | 214 (18.4 %) | |
| 4. Like a sausage or snake, smooth and soft | ||||
| n (%) | 12 (46.2 %) | 8 (30.8 %) | 518 (44.5 %) | |
| 5. Soft blobs with clear-cut edges | ||||
| n (%) | 8 (30.8 %) | 3 (11.5 %) | 62 (5.4 %) | |
| 6. Fluffy pieces with ragged edges, a mushy stool | ||||
| n (%) | 2 (7.7 %) | 1 (3.8 %) | 53 (4.5 %) | |
| 7. Watery, no solid pieces | ||||
| n (%) | 0.0 | 1 (3.8 %) | Not assessed |
aThree patients did not record any bowel motions post-operatively during the 7-day diary, one of whom returned a similar nil record pre-operatively. Discussion with the participants confirmed that these were accurate records in each case (i.e. no bowel motions during the 7 days). As such, this data is included and analysed as zero rather than being excluded from analysis
b Wilcoxon signed rank test