Biofeedback and Pelvic Floor Exercises for the Rehabilitation of Urinary Stress Incontinence

Abstract

We investigated the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercises or biofeedback for the treatment of urinary stress incontinence (USI). Fifty patients with USI were included in this randomized, controlled, prospective study. Twenty patients were taught PFM exercises via digital palpation and instructed to perform regularly as home program. The second group of 20 patients had PFM exercises via biofeedback three times a week for 2 months. The third group of 10 patients did not have any exercises. The patients were evaluated via pad test, perineometry, digital palpation based PFM strength, incontinence frequency, and visual analog scale based social activity index prior to and 8 weeks after the treatment. The first two groups had significant improvement in USI with respect to the control group (p < 0.001). The rise in PFM strength with perineometry of the biofeedback group was higher than in the digital palpation group after treatment (p < 0.001). PFM exercises are effective for the treatment of USI; the biofeedback method revealed better PFM strength results with respect to digital palpation.

Physical therapy treatment in incontinent women provided by a Public Health Service

“…Morkved e Fjortoft (29) compared women with SUI who had performed PF functional training exercises with women who had been trained with biofeedback, and observed 58% improvement in women who had used biofeedback and 46% in those who had only exercised. Aksac et al (30) also studied the effects of perennial exercise and biofeedback, and observed improved strength in both groups; however, there was greater gain in the group trained with biofeedback.…”

Conservative Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…Five studies were eligible [14][15][16][17][18] , which included 250 women, 126 in the PFMT groups and 124 in the PFMT, in addition to biofeedback groups. One of them 15 was not included in the meta-analyses for some of the outcomes because its groups were heterogeneous at the beginning of the study, and the use of final measures only in the pooled estimates would not take this initial difference between groups into consideration.…”

The status of pelvic floor muscle training for women

“…[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] At least 2 systematic reviews evaluated PFM training using biofeedback measurement. 38,39 Although PFM training for urinary incontinence is considered Level 1 scientific evidence, Latthe, Foon and Khan identified weaknesses in the methodology of the studies; they claim that the studies lack the power to produce reliable results.…”

“…[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] It is clear that there is no consensus on the amount of exercise required to improve PFM function. Over time, while different modalities and training protocols have been adopted, the most common approach is to use either PFM contraction exclusively, or in association with increased levels of overall physical activity.…”