Does pelvic floor muscle training abolish symptoms of urinary incontinence? A randomized controlled trial

Objective: To determine whether symptoms of urinary incontinence is reduced by pelvic floor muscle training, to determine whether urinary incontinence can be totally eliminated by strengthening the pelvic floor muscle to grade 5 on the Oxford scale. Design: Prospective randomized controlled clinical trial. Setting: Outpatient urogynecology department. Subjects: One hundred thirty cases with stress and mixed urinary incontinence. Intervention: All participants were randomly allocated to the pelvic floor muscle training group or control group. A 12-week home based exercise program, prescribed individually, was performed by the pelvic floor muscle training group. Main measures: Urinary incontinence symptoms (Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7, Urogenital Distress Inventory-6, bladder diary, stop test and pad test) were assessed, and the pelvic floor muscle strength was measured for (PERFECT testing, perineometric and ultrasound) all participants before and after 12 weeks of treatment. Results: The pelvic floor muscle training group had significant improvement in their symptoms of urinary incontinence (P=0.001) and an increase in pelvic floor muscle strength (P=0.001, by the dependent t test) compared with the control group. All the symptoms of urinary incontinence were significantly decreased in the patients that had reached pelvic floor muscle strength of grade 5 and continued the pelvic floor muscle training (P<0.05). Conclusion: The study demonstrated that pelvic floor muscle training is effective in reducing the symptoms of stress and mixed urinary incontinence and in increasing pelvic floor muscle strength.