Association of early-onset constipation and diarrhoea with patient outcomes in critically ill ventilated patients: A retrospective observational cohort study

Background: Constipation and diarrhoea are closely related, but few studies have examined them simultaneously. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe patient defecation status after intensive care unit (ICU) admission and determine the association between early-onset constipation and diarrhoea following ICU admission with outcomes for critically ill ventilated patients. Methods: Patients ventilated for & GE;48 h in an ICU were retrospectively investigated, and their defecation status was assessed during the first week after admission. Early-onset constipation and diarrhoea were defined as onset during the first week of ICU admission. The patients were divided into three group-s-normal defecation, constipation, and diarrhoea-and multiple comparisons were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and the Mann-Whitney U test with Bonferroni adjustment. Additionally, multi -variable analysis was performed for mortality and length of stay using the linear and logistic regression models. Results: Of the 85 critically ill ventilated patients, 47 (55%) experienced early-onset constipation and 12 (14%) experienced early-onset diarrhoea. Patients with normal defecation and diarrhoea increased from the 4th and 5th day of ICU admission. Early-onset diarrhoea was significantly associated with the length of ICU stay (B = 7.534, 95% confidence interval: 0.116-14.951). Conclusions: Early-onset constipation and diarrhoea were common in critically ill ventilated patients, and early-onset diarrhoea was associated with the length of ICU stay. & COPY; 2022 Australian College of Critical Care Nurses Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).