St. Paul’s Hospital touts life-changing trial for patients with distressing condition

A trial program at St. Paul’s Hospital is offering a new hope to patients suffering from an embarrassing and stigmatizing condition.

For people living with fecal incontinence, every trip out of the house has the potential to lead to an embarrassing situation.

According to doctors at St. Paul’s Hospital, the condition can impact up to one in 10 people and has a variety of causes, including previous bowel surgery and childbirth.

“That’s one of the things that we see commonly woven, is that there is a group of patients, primarily women, that are affected by this condition,” said Dr. Vishal Varshney, an anesthesiologist at the hospital.

Under a trial program funded through the St. Paul’s Foundation, some patients living with the condition can now undergo a procedure that offers some relief.

It involves implanting a nerve stimulator and small battery back.

“That’s delivering electrical signals to certain nerves in the body, in the spinal cord that are changing the signals about going to the bathroom, essentially,” said Varshney.

The cost is covered in some provinces, including Alberta and Ontario, but not yet in B.C. outside of this trial.

Five patients have benefitted so far – with five more scheduled to receive treatment.

Due to the sensitive nature of the condition and the procedure, none of them were willing to identify themselves to CTV News.

One patient was willing to provide a statement provided she was only identified by her first name.

“This condition was quietly taking over my life. I was planning everything around bathrooms and the fear of an accident. The neurostimulator changed that,” Diane said.

“I’m on the other side of it now—sometimes I forget how much it used to consume my life. I’m sharing this because people need to know there are options and they don’t have to live like this.”

The trial is a collaboration between different departments at St. Paul’s, doctors from acute and chronic pain medicine and the hospital’s colorectal clinic working together on it.

Varshney, the Chair of Pain Management at St. Paul’s, told CTV News the move to the hospital’s new campus should result in more cross-departmental collaborations.

The new hospital is scheduled to open in less than a year, and the St. Paul’s Foundation told CTV News it will provide many more opportunities for innovative treatments for a variety of medical conditions.

“There’s all sorts of things that we’re doing right now, just in terms of the capital that are going to accelerate the research, and that will ultimately accelerate the care that’s available to patients in the hospital,” said foundation CEO Sheila Biggers.

The foundation said it is now only about $50 million short of its fundraising goal to build a clinical support and research centre attached to the new St. Paul’s Hospital.