Pelvic floor muscle training with biofeedback helps improve symptoms of fecal incontinence - Healio

Patients who underwent supervised pelvic floor muscle training with biofeedback were five times more likely to experience improvements in fecal incontinence symptoms, according to research published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Anja Ussing, MSc, of the department of physiotherapy and occupational therapy at Copenhagen University Hospital, and colleagues wrote that even though pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is a component of first-line therapy for fecal incontinence, research on its effect has been limited. With their study, researchers sought to investigate whether PFMT is superior to attention-control massage treatment in adults with fecal incontinence.

“Approximately 8% to 9% of the adult population is suffering from fecal incontinence,” they wrote. “The condition is surrounded by taboo; it can have a devastating impact on quality of life and lead to major limitations in daily life.”

Researchers randomly assigned 88 patients to undergo either supervised PFMT and biofeedback plus conservative treatment or attention-control treatment plus conservative treatment. The primary outcome was symptom changes based on Patient global impression of improvement scale (PGI-I) after 16 weeks, and secondary outcomes included changes in Vaizey incontinence score and fecal incontinence severity index.

Investigators found that patients in the PFMT group were more likely to report improvement in incontinence symptoms based on PGI-I score (OR = 5.16; 95% CI, 2.18–12.19) and had a larger reduction in Vaizey score (reduction of –1.83; 95% CI, –3.57 to –0.08).

“Participants in the PFMT group had fivefold higher odds of reporting improvements in fecal incontinence symptoms and had a larger mean reduction of incontinence severity at the Vaizey Score,” Ussing and colleagues wrote. “Based upon the results, PFMT in combination with conservative treatment should be offered as first-line treatment for adults with fecal incontinence.” – by Alex Young

Disclosures: Ussing reports receiving grants from the Danish Foundation for Research Physiotherapy, the Research Foundation at Copenhagen University Hospital, The Lundbeck Foundation and the Foundation of Aase and Einar Danielsen. Ussing also reports being a paid consultant for the Danish Physiotherapy Foundation. Please see the full study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.

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