Clear stools?

[jschut, BSN, RN]

There is a lady in our LTC who has recently had a stroke. When we take care of her and roll her over to clean her up, there is like a clear gel looking substance in her brief.

Could it be clear stool? I've never heard of such a thing, and I don't remember anything like this in nursing school.

[meandragonbrett]

I know what you're talking about, but I don't know what it is.

Brett

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

Do you mean a small amount of mucus? Or are we talking volume? There are many things that can cause mucus in the stool, some benign, others bad.

[Dazedgiggle]

I've seen it before too, in small amounts. Always figured it was mucus.

[Brenna's Dad]

I had a CABG pt once who had this very same thing. His stool was completely clear and slightly gelatinous. It had volume as well, I'd say apprx 500cc a few times a day. We sent a sample down to the lab for C&S, O&P, etc. The lab called us back and told us the requisition had said stool, but we had sent something else. I have only seen it once in 11 years. We did some research, but couldn't find out what was causing it. Unfortunately, I was working as a critical care float at the time and never had the opportunity to follow up and see what this was. Let me know if you do.

[shygirl]

We had a woman who had the same thing and she had a bowel obstruction. It is a mucous, but it's also an infection

[Agnus]

See it all the time. Especially with a double barrel colostomy. They even call the distal end of the colostomy a mucous fistula. Even in these patients it is still passed from the rectum. I have seen huge quantities of mucous passed. Someone here mentioned infection. I am not discounting that but in the cases I've seen it there was no infection.

[nursecheryl]

Mucus is seen in the stool also when the intestines are inflammed, ulcerated or engorged. Possible dx chrohns diseas, ulcerative colitis or one in the same inflammatory bowel disease.

[nimbex, RN]

See that with bowel obstructions, the only thing that forms to pass below the obstruction is clear mucus.

disclaimer

Only experience here no real way to back this up:confused:

[Brenna's Dad]

I've worked with mucous fistulas before, and what this guy was passing was something completely different. It was only very slightly mucousy, for the most part, it looked like water.

[jschut, BSN, RN]

No...this stuff is totally clear (no color at all) and looks almost like jelly. There is a fair amount each time. She has no colostomy either...

I'll keep searching and if I can find out anything, I'll let you all know.

[Gator,SN]

Ok, I really debated with myself if I should post this because I don't want to sound really dumb, but maybe what you are seeing is part of the brief.....

When my son was small there were no such things as pull-ups (training pants) so whenever we took him swimming we would put a diaper on him...we bought the cheap kind and sure enough as soon as it was wet this "white jelly-like substance" would ooze out of it.

Maybe if you wet a brief, let it sit for about 20 minutes and then open up the lining you will find the same type of substance inside.?????

Gator

Oh how I wish I could have changes my user name for this one!