Pelvic floor biofeedback therapy in pelvic floor diseases

Abstract

Pelvic floor biofeedback therapy is safe and effective in chronic constipation, urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence and pelvic floor pain whereas the heterogeneous indication affects the efficacy evaluation and technical communication. The best indications are as follows: (1) Pelvic floor myogenic dysfunction without severe pelvic organ prolapse and severe neurogenic defect; (2) Patients have good mental cognition and treatment adherence who fulfill the training with the therapist. The training protocol is conducted at hospital or at home, and is as follows: (1) To help patients to target the pelvic floor muscles; (2) To improve the type I( muscle tonic contraction variability; (3) To improve the pelvic floor type I( and type II( muscles activity coordination; (4) To enhance the pelvic floor muscle strength and rectum defecation awareness. The biofeedback efficacy is evaluated with different symptoms, questionnaire score, patient satisfaction recognition and long-term outcomes. Pelvic floor biofeedback therapy will be highlighted and extended to the primary care in near future following the pragmatic randomized controlled clinical trials, collection and analysis of big data.