Pelvic floor muscle training improves urinary continence after prostatectomy

A study was conducted to determine the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) on post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence (PPUI), which has a major impact on the quality of life of patients who are undergone radical prostatectomy (RP).

A systematic search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases from the inception of each database until April 2021. We performed a meta-analysis separately using the number of patients achieving urinary continence as binary data and the patients' ICIQ-SF scores as continuous data. Odds ratios (ORs) and mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and a random-effects model were utilized to analyze the overall recovery of UI adequately. We performed a risk of bias evaluation on the included studies using the RoB 2 tool.

Results

• Twenty-one studies met our selection criteria for quantitative synthesis.
• Eight studies were on the effects of PFME, and 13 studies were on the effects of assistant interventions added to PFME.
• The overall continence OR in the meta-analysis for PFME versus no-PFME was 2.971 (95% CI: 1.278, 6.907). The overall ICIQ-SF score in the meta-analysis for PFME versus no-PFME was -1.012 (95% CI: -2.379, 0.355).
• In the case of assistant interventions added to PFME, the overall continence OR in the meta-analysis for assistant interventions versus conventional PFME only was 2.128 (95% CI: 1.357, 3.336).

Thus, in their study, a positive effect of PFME on the recovery of PPUI was observed. However, more research with higher quality is needed to confirm the real efficacy of PFME.

Reference:

Efficacy of pelvic floor exercise for post-prostatectomy incontinence: Systematic review and meta-analysis by Jae Joon Park et al. published in the UROLOGY.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2022.04.023

Keywords:

Efficacy, pelvic floor, exercise, post, prostatectomy, incontinence, Systematic review, meta-analysis, Jae Joon Park, UROLOGY, Allison Kwon, Jun Young Park, Sung Ryul Shim, Jae Heon Kim, Prostatectomy, postoperative complications, urinary incontinence, Pelvic floor, Physical therapy modalities