The Global Evidence Mapping Initiative: Scoping research in broad topic areas

Table 4 Example of 'detailed study characteristics' output (extract only): Effective interventions for optimising bowel function in the rehabilitation phase of SCI

Reference	Study Design	Country	n	Pop.	Patient Group	Condition	Intervention	Outcomes
Ayas et al. 2006 [24]	Case series	Turkey	24	All SCI	Adult	Neurogenic bowel	Abdominal massage	Mean time for bowel evacuation; Frequency of defecation; Faecal incontinence; Abdominal distension; Abdominal pain; Difficult intestinal evacuation
Furusawa et al. 2007 [25]	Case series	Japan	15	All SCI	Adult	Autonomic Dysreflexia	Bowel program involving manual removal of stool	BP; Pulse; Symptoms of cervical SCI
Luther et al. 2005 [26]	Retrospective cohort	USA	370	All SCI	Adult	Neurogenic bowel	Bowel care program; Colostomy	Training for bowel care program; Quality of life; Subjective complication rates

Commentary on evidence
Two systematic reviews were identified in this topic area covering colostomy and ileostomy and multimodal bowel management and over half (21) of the eligible primary studies were case series. Five studies recruited over 100 patients. Four of these were exclusively SCI populations, however, the largest study in the evidence map that was on multimodal bowel management (n = 837), comprised a mixed population with no subgroup analysis. The majority of studies assessed specific physiological parameters, such as time to flatus and number of bowel evacuations. Only seven studies assessed quality of life measures.
(Note: this commentary refers to studies not contained in the above table, which is an extract of a table containing the 34 included studies).

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