Tenesmus

Tenesmus. Under certain conditions, continually repeated and painful efforts to evacuate material from the bowel are made with very little result, the patient being caused to go to stool not so much by reason of the presence of faecal matter in the lower bowel as by the existence of an irritated state of the mucous membrane of the large intestine. This condition, called tenesmus, is a characteristic symptom of dysentery.