Promoting continence in stress urinary incontinent female– A case study

International Continence society (ICS) defines incontinence as, “Involuntary loss of urine that is a social or hygienic problem”. Globally, urinary incontinence (UI) affects the quality of life of at least one third of women. This problem is more pronounced in India, where women usually do not seek treatment for their reproductive health problems and do not vocalize their symptoms. In patients with urinary incontinence, biofeedback couples the physiological recruitment of the proper muscle groups in pelvic floor exercises with observable stimuli, typically visual or audio cues.

To improve the severity of stress urinary incontinence and quality of life by improving the pelvic floor muscle strength using Pelvexiser.

A 54 Year female who have attained menopause and had stress urinary incontinence was given pelvic floor muscle training using biofeedback equipment– Pelvexiser for 6 weeks. The treatment was given both with and without a pre set pressure as a resistance. The Pelvic floor muscle strength was assessed using clinical scale for grading digital evaluation and by using the Pelvexiser before, during and after the treatment program. The quality of life was assessed using the Incontinence Quality of Life Scale (I-QOL). The pelvic floor muscle strength increased from 2 to 4 in the clinical scale for grading digital evaluation and the severity of incontinence was found to be improved from 5 to 8 cm in the Visual analogue scale. Her quality of life score showed a good improvement from her pretest value of 76.13% to her posttest value of 23.86%. The Pelvexiser readings showed a good improvement from a pre treatment pressure of 20 mm Hg to a last post treatment pressure of 56 mm Hg (without resistance) and from a resisting pressure which was set as 20mm Hg initially up to 50 mm Hg at the end of the treatment program.

Although it is widely accepted that continent surgery is the most effective treatment for severe or persistent stress incontinence, conservative measures are usually the first line of treatment for women with urinary incontinence and usage of Pelvexiser for pelvic floor muscle training is very effective in reducing the frequency of accidents of urine leak and in promoting continence.