Continuous improvement of portable domestic pelvic floor neuromuscular electrical stimulation on the pelvic floor function of patients with urinary incontinence

Abstract

To evaluate continuous improvement of portable domestic pelvic floor neuromuscular electrical stimulation on the pelvic floor function of patients with stress urinary incontinence after short-term pelvic floor electrophysiological treatment in hospital. Totally 60 women with stress urinary incontinence were recruited for this randomized controlled trial. The control group including a total of 30 patients, only received 4 weeks pelvic floor electrophysiological treatment in the hospital. Family consolidation treatment group (experimental group) including 30 patients, after 4-week treatment in hospital, received 12-week of pelvic floor neuromuscular electrical stimulation using portable electrical stimulator at home under the guidance of doctors. In post-treatment 6 months and 9 months, 1-hour pad test was measured for urine leakage, pelvic floor electrical physiological parameters were assessed, and subjective improvement of symptoms of urinary incontinence were evaluated. All these data were analysed to compare the effect of the two groups. In 9 months after treatment, average change of urine leakage, the control group and experiment group were (75±24)% versus (99±3)%, the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). In the experiment group, strength of type I muscle (4.4±0.7), strength of type II muscle (4.8±0.4) and pelvic floor dynamic pressure [(96±12) cmH(2)O, 1 cmH(2)O=0.098 kPa] were better than those of control group [3.2±1.0, 4.3±0.9, (86±10) cmH(2)O, respectively], the differences were statistically significant (P<0.01). Subjective outcome, the control group and experiment group were (6.5±2.9) versus (1.8±1.7), subjective outcome between the two groups had significant difference (P<0.01). After short-term pelvic floor electrophysiological treatment in hospital, the portable domestic pelvic floor neuromuscular electrical stimulation in patients with stress urinary incontinence is helpful to continuous improvement of pelvic floor function.