wk12 - bowels - constipation Flashcards
What are normal bowel movements like?
· 1-3x daily · well formed · float · light brown / brownish color · mild odor · no undigested food (except corn) · ease of evacuation & sense of completion · no urgency
True or False: When referring to constipation or lack of bowel movement, there is a wide variation in frequency depending on the patient.
True
In terms of constipation or lack of bowel movement, what is within range for frequency?
either moving bowels less than 1x daily, or moving bowels every day but patient says evacuation is incomplete
A patient with constipation or lack of bowel movement may have which possible pathologies?
· Qi Vacuity · LV Qi Stagnation · Yang Vacuity · Less Serious Qi Vacuity · Yin Vacuity
A patient with constipation who reports no pain, no sense of fullness, and infrequent bowel movements has what pathology? Explain the pathomechanism.
· Qi Vacuity
· infrequent bowels bc there is not enough Qi to move the bowels (facilitate peristalsis)
· not stagnation bc it’s moving, but moving slowly
· when they do have a bowel movement, they are utterly exhausted (bc of the effort required)
A patient with constipation who reports discomfort or pain and pellet-like feces that require a lot of effort to excrete (but results in little output) has what pathology?
LV Qi Stagnation
A patient with constipation who reports vacuity cold pain and cold sensations has what pathology?
Yang Vacuity
A patient with constipation who reports thin, pencil-like feces has what pathology?
Less Serious Qi Vacuity
A patient with constipation who reports uncomfortable & dry bowel movements that require effort to evacuate has what pathology? We might see this in what kind of patients?
· Yin Vacuity
· in the elderly, can give rise to impacted bowels
· common post-partum, due to blood loss
