Improvement of postpartum pelvic floor by rehabilitation training assessed with transperineal real-time ultrasound

Abstract

Objective To investigate the improvement of postpartum pelvic floor by rehabilitation training assessed with three-dimensional transperineal ultrasound. Methods One hundred cases of healthy postpartum women were randomly divided into two groups: control group and training group.The control group received the customary education,and the training group received pelvic floor rehabilitation training. At 6 and 12 weeks postpartum,levator hiatus area,thickness of the levator ani muscle,bladder neck mobility,and bladder posterior horn were measured with three-dimensional transperineal ultrasound in all the subjects. Meanwhile,the muscle strength situations were tested. Results At 12 weeks postpartum,the anal levator hiatal area,bladder neck mobility and bladder posterior horn in the training group were lower than those of the control group (P<0.05). Compared with control group,the thickness of the levator ani muscle increased in training group (P<0.05). The incidence of stress urinary incontinence in the training group (5%) was significantly lower than the control group (12.5%) at 12 weeks postpartum (χ2=5.487,P=0.025). The muscle strength had no significant difference at 6 weeks postpartum. At 12 weeks postpartum,the pass rate of class Ⅰ muscle fiber was 78.5%,and that of class Ⅱ muscle fiber was 83.3% in the training group; the pass rate of class Ⅰ muscle fiber was 28.5%,and class Ⅱ muscle fiber was 37.3% in the control group,the improvement was significant at 12 weeks postpartum. Conclusions The result of the transperineal real-time ultrasonographic evaluation of post-natal pelvic floor rehabilitation training has high consistency with the measurement of muscle strength. The ultrasound examination is simple and accurate,and has highly applicable value in evaluating the effect of post-pelvic rehabilitation training. Key words: Ultrasonography,three-dimensional; Pelvic floor; Postpartum rehabilitation training of pelvic floor; Muscle function of pelvic floor