Abstract
Objective
To investigate the effects of a home-based pelvic floor muscle training with and without action and cue observation on urinary incontinence after prostatectomy.
Design
Two-armed single-blind randomized controlled trial.
Setting
Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan, Italy.
Participants
Ninety-two participants with age between 40 and 80 years and urinary incontinence after robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.
Intervention
Participants were randomized into an action and cue observation (n = 46) or control (n = 46) group undergoing an 8-week home-based pelvic floor muscle training. Action and cue observation group observed video clips showing exercises synchronized with a visual cue indicating the correct pelvic floor muscle activation timing and imitated the observed tasks. Control group observed landscape video clips and performed the same exercises of experimental group.
Main measures
A blinded physiotherapist assessed participants for urinary leakages (24-h pad test), symptom severity (International Prostate Symptoms Score and International Prostate Symptoms Score - Quality of Life), quality of life (International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire - Short Form), and erectile dysfunction (International Index of Erectile Function) before and after the training.
Results
All participants improved urinary leakages, symptom severity, and quality of life after training. Action and cue observation group revealed significantly larger improvements in 24-h pad test (mean difference: 106.1 g, 95% CI: 13.4 g, 199.1 g, p = .037) than control group.
Conclusions
Home-based pelvic floor muscle training with action and cue observation led to larger improvements in urinary continence compared to the same training without action and cue observation after prostatectomy.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
