According to a recent study published in the Urology, pelvic floor muscle training improves urinary continence among patients with post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence.
A study was conducted to determine the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) on post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence (PPUI), which has a major impact on the quality of life of patients who are undergone radical prostatectomy (RP).

A systematic search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases from the inception of each database until April 2021. We performed a meta-analysis separately using the number of patients achieving urinary continence as binary data and the patients' ICIQ-SF scores as continuous data. Odds ratios (ORs) and mean difference (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and a random-effects model were utilized to analyze the overall recovery of UI adequately. We performed a risk of bias evaluation on the included studies using the RoB 2 tool.
Results
Twenty-one studies met our selection criteria for quantitative synthesis.
Eight studies were on the effects of PFME, and 13 studies were on the effects of assistant interventions added to PFME.
The overall continence OR in the meta-analysis for PFME versus no-PFME was 2.971 (95% CI: 1.278, 6.907). The overall ICIQ-SF score in the meta-analysis for PFME versus no-PFME was -1.012 (95% CI: -2.379, 0.355).
In the case of assistant interventions added to PFME, the overall continence OR in the meta-analysis for assistant interventions versus conventional PFME only was 2.128 (95% CI: 1.357, 3.336).
Thus, in their study, a positive effect of PFME on the recovery of PPUI was observed. However, more research with higher quality is needed to confirm the real efficacy of PFME.
Reference:
Efficacy of pelvic floor exercise for post-prostatectomy incontinence: Systematic review and meta-analysis by Jae Joon Park et al. published in the UROLOGY.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urology.2022.04.023
Keywords:
Efficacy, pelvic floor, exercise, post, prostatectomy, incontinence, Systematic review, meta-analysis, Jae Joon Park, UROLOGY, Allison Kwon, Jun Young Park, Sung Ryul Shim, Jae Heon Kim, Prostatectomy, postoperative complications, urinary incontinence, Pelvic floor, Physical therapy modalities