[The feelings and suggestions expressed by colostomy patients who self-irrigate]

[Quality of life of the colostomized person with or without use of methods of bowel control]

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate and to compare the quality of life (QoL) of colostomy people, using or not using the bowel control methods (BCM), in other words, the colostomy irrigation and the plug system, considering the hypothesis that people who used them had better QoL.

METHOD

This study was carried out in the Heliópolis Hospital Outpatient Department, after the project approval for the Ethical and Research Committee, using the WHOQoL-bref. The sample was constituted of two groups: 50 colostomy people with BCM and 50, without BCM.

RESULTS

The Group with BCM had a QoL significantly higher, being this observed in all the Domains and in the Overall QoL, than those of the Group without BCM.

CONCLUSION

The study confirmed the hypothesis that the QoL of the Group with BCM is better than the Group without BCM.

[Implementation and evaluation of a teaching plan for the auto-irrigation of colostomy: a case study]

With a view to describing and evaluating the implementation of a teaching plan for the auto-irrigation of colostomy and reporting on the perceptions of colostomized patients related to auto-irrigation, this case study was developed at the colostomy out-patient clinic of the Júlio Müller University Hospital, Cuiabá, Brazil, from February to March 1997. The teaching plan helped the patients to learn about the irrigation technique and social rehabilitation.