Outpatient biofeedback in addition to home pelvic floor muscle training for stress urinary incontinence

The aim of this study was 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). 72 incontinent women were randomized to BF (outpatient BF + home PFMT) or PFMT (outpatient PFMT + home PFMT) groups. They were assessed at baseline after 3 months of supervised treatment, and at a 9-month follow-up (after six additional months of home PFMT only). They were assessed for requency of monthly exercises sets performed (exercise diary) after 3-month treatment, 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.

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