Stool can become impacted, or stuck, in your colon, blocking waste from leaving the body. This often causes pain and bloating. Treatment can include laxatives or procedures to remove the stool. When ...

Digestive health rarely dominates health headlines, yet irregular bowel movements pose serious risks that millions of Americans face daily. Medical professionals increasingly recognize that consistent ...

Constipation is difficulty emptying your bowels. Fecal impaction is the buildup of hardened stool in your bowel that you can’t pass. Fecal impaction is a potential complication of chronic constipation ...

Jay N. Yepuri, MD, MS, FACG, is a board-certified gastroenterologist and member of the Digestive Health Associates of Texas Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Long-term constipation can lead ...

Lindsay Curtis is a health & medical writer in South Florida. She worked as a communications professional for health nonprofits and the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of ...

The term fecal impaction refers to a collection of hardened stools in the colon or rectum. This obstruction can make it difficult for a person to pass stools and may cause symptoms such as abdominal ...

Disimpaction provides rapid relief from severe constipation by removing trapped stool in the rectum. The most common method involves manually breaking up and removing stool with a gloved finger. After ...

Digital disimpaction is when a person uses their finger to remove stool from the rectum. This procedure may be a last resort when other methods of passing the stool are not working. Sometimes, it is ...