Innovative surgery shows promise.

Expanded success with experimental surgical treatments for chronic fecal incontinence offers new hope to patents who have exhausted conventional treatment options. Ground-breaking procedures - alternative methods to replace the anal sphincter muscle responsible for bowel control - have been reported by surgical teams from Spain, The Netherlands, and France. "These procedures, still considered experimental in the U.S., may benefit a significant number of people who can't be helped using conventional treatment options," suggests Robert D. Madoff, director of research, division of Colorectal Surgery, University of Minnesota.

U.S. approval may not be far off. A Food and Drug Administration protocol to examine the effectiveness of graciloplasty, using a thigh muscle to replace the sphincter, is under way. Another FDA protocol on an alternative method using an...