Constipation frequency, related factors and some effects in intensive care patients

This study was conducted as an descriptive research in order to determine the frequency of constipation, the factors related to constipation and to investigate the effects of constipation on length of stay in intensive care unit, gastric residual volume, vomiting, distension. The data of this study were collected in Anesthesia and Reanimation Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Bolu Izzet Baysal State Hospital Koroglu Unit between 01 January 2019 and 31 May 2019. Bristol Stool Consistency Scale and patient information form and daily follow-up form were used for data collection. While the population of the study consisted of 260 patients treated at the place of study and the sample group contained 116 patients fulfilling the criteria of the study. Analysis were performed using SPSS v.21. In descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum, frequency and percentage values are given. The difference between the groups was examined by means of significance test, Mann Whitney U test and chi-square test. In this study, the constipation frequency in ICU was detected as 63.8%. Patients with constipation were examined in two types as early and late constipation. While the frequency of early constipation patients who did not have defecation up to 5 days was 18.9%, the frequency of late constipation patients who did not have defecation six and more days was detected 36.8%. It was observed for the patients in these two groups that the duration of hospitalization was longer (p = 0.00) than patients without constipation and the patients receiving mechanical ventilator support (p = 0.03), enteral fed (p = 0.04), and diuretic medication (p = 0.02) had higher risk for constipation. In conclusion, it was decided that the frequency of constipation was higher in ICU and patients with long duration of hospitalization, receiving MV supplementation, fed by enteral route and taking diuretic drugs were at risk for constipation. This study should be repeated with larger sample groups, due to the small number of sample groups investigated in this study. Keywords: Constipation, intensive care units, nursing