Outpatient biofeedback in addition to home pelvic floor muscle training for stress urinary incontinence: a randomized controlled trial.

AIMS

To test if biofeedback (BF) added to pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) increases the frequency of home exercises performed by women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

METHODS

72 incontinent women were randomized to BF (outpatient BF + home PFMT) or PFMT (outpatient PFMT + home PFMT) groups.

ASSESSMENTS

baseline, after 3 months of supervised treatment, at 9-month follow-up (after six additional months of home PFMT only).

PRIMARY OUTCOME

frequency of monthly exercises sets performed (exercise diary) after 3-month treatment.

SECONDARY OUTCOMES

adherence, urinary symptoms, severity and cure of SUI (pad test <2 g leakage), muscle function, quality of life, and subject cure (satisfaction report with no desire for different treatment) at the two time-points.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES

ANOVA and Student's t-test with 5% cut-off for significance.

RESULTS

It was observed similar frequency of monthly home exercises sets performed by BF (67.9 out of 82) and PFMT (68.2 out of 82) groups at 3 months. Secondarily, equal satisfaction, but superior objective cure of SUI for BF group after 3-month treatment (P = 0.018; OR: 3.15 [95% CI: 1.20-8.25]). At 9-month follow-up, the adherence to home exercises was similar (around 50%) and significantly dropped in both groups compared to the 3-month results (around 85%). No difference was detected in the objective and subjective cure of SUI between the groups after 9 months. Both therapies similarly improved the muscle function and quality of life during the study (P < 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS

Adjunct BF did not increase the frequency of home exercises performed by SUI patients.