Physiotherapy for women with stress urinary incontinence

This review article is intended to expose physiotherapists to a physiotherapy assessment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and the treatment and potentially preventive roles that they might play for women with SUI. In particular, the objective of this article is to provide an understanding of pelvic floor muscle function and the implications that this function has for physiotherapy treatment by reviewing articles published in this area. A range of databases was searched to identify articles that address physiotherapy for SUI, including the Cochrane Library, Medline, and CINAHL. According to the articles identified in the databases research, greater improvements in SUI take place when women receive a supervised exercise program of at least three months. The effectiveness of physiotherapy treatment is increased if the exercise program is based on some principles, such as intensity, duration, resembling functional task, and the position in which the exercise for pelvic floor muscles is performed. Biofeedback and electrical stimulation may also be clinically useful and acceptable modalities for some women with SUI.

This study concluded that the plan for physiotherapy care should be customised for each patient and include standard physiotherapy interventions.