PTNS is a newer treatment, which involves electrically stimulating a nerve at the ankle, using a very small needle, as an outpatient (a bit like acupuncture). This sends signals back to the spine region to try and improve symptoms of faecal incontinence. Since this is a newer treatment, fewer studies have been performed to quantify how successful it is, but early results of PTNS suggest that it may be as good as SNS. If this is true, this is very important because it is much less invasive and considerably cheaper than SNS (equipment £500 per patient).