comparing manual and automatic colonic massage for chronic constipation.

Conditions: Chronic Constipation

Summary: the aim of this study is to do a systematic review and metanalysis of the scientific literature to compare the effectiveness of the manual vs the automatic colonic massage intervention in patients with chronic constipation.

retrieval strategy * computer retrieval of clinical literature on abdominal massage for constipation published between 1990 and december 2024 will be conducted in: * ncbi pubmed. * research gate. * google scholar. * ovid. * english retrieval terms included: colon, abdominal, constipation, bowel function, transit time, massage, and device. * a cross-retrieval will be conducted to screen the literature that met the inclusion criteria. literature screening and data extraction * the literature search will be independently performed by two researchers. * identified studies will be imported into endnote×9 and mendeley for organization. * articles will be evaluated based on predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. * duplicates from various databases will be removed. * clearly irrelevant articles will be excluded based on their titles and abstracts. * full texts of the remaining studies will be thoroughly reviewed, and those that met the criteria will be included. * the final dataset will be cross-verified. * discrepancies will be resolved through discussion or by involving a third researcher with a phd for arbitration. * extracted data included: * first author's name * publication year * study type * sample size * participant gender and age * interventions in both experimental and control groups * treatment duration and frequency * primary and secondary study outcomes * quality assessment of the studies * study characteristics, along with the study design, description of interventions (type of colon massage applied), and indices of evaluated results, will be organized using an excel-based data extraction form. quality evaluation * quality assessment of the literature will be conducted using the "risk of bias" tool recommended by the cochrane handbook for systematic reviews (rob2.0 and robins-e). these tools evaluate various bias domains, including randomization, deviations from intended interventions, missing data, outcome measurement, and selective reporting. each domain will be rated as having a high, unclear, or low risk of bias. * disagreements between the two researchers regarding the literature's conclusions will be resolved through discussion or by a third researcher.

Eligibility criteria:
literature inclusion criteria: * study type: * clinical studies using abdominal/colon massage to treat constipation. * articles published between 1990 and till the day of literature search with original work (experimental and quasi-experimental ) or dealing with the application of colon massage to gastrointestinal function. * study subjects: * patients with constipation. * individuals of any gender, age and ethnicity. * interventions: - manual or automatic colon massage treatment for constipation. * outcomes (including at least one of the following): * evacuation frequency. * quality of life parameters. * symptoms of constipation. * use of laxatives or enemas. * adverse events. literature exclusion criteria: * no abstract available, reviews, conference abstracts, dissertations, registration documents, clinical experience summary analysis, animal experiments, etc. * studies where the treatment was non-colon specific. * studies involving invasive treatments. * other treatments intended to treat constipation such as surgical interventions, acupuncture, acupoint application, and others considered medicinal alternative therapies. * documents written in languages other than in english, german, spanish, as well as other european languages, including italian, french, and portuguese. * incorrect or incomplete case data.

Keywords: manual massage automatic massage colonic massage intermittent colonic exoperistalsis