Outpatient pelvic-floor therapy in girls with daytime incontinence and dysfunctional voiding.
OBJECTIVE
Analysis of an experience in treating girls with dysfunctional voiding with an outpatient pelvic-floor therapy consisting of voiding and drinking schedule, pelvic-floor relaxation biofeedback, instructions on toilet behavior, and uroflowmetry.


METHODS
The files of 50 girls (between 6 and 13 years of age) with urodynamically proven dysfunctional voiding who participated in the training program were analyzed retrospectively. Thirty-five girls received anticholinergics during the entire course of the training. The long-term absence of diurnal incontinence was used as the criterion for the success of the therapy. The duration of treatment before reaching this success was used as a parameter to measure the intensity of therapy. For a portion of the study group, a comparison is made with the duration of the preceding therapies to demonstrate indirectly the cumulative effect of the pelvic-floor therapy.


RESULTS
Forty-six girls (92%) normalized their flow and bladder capacity after therapy and saw their daytime incontinence disappearing. All of these girls achieved this result in a maximum of 18 sessions within a 6-month period. At the follow-up examination after 6 months, five of the girls had relapsed (10%), which brings the ultimate success after 6 months of follow-up to 82%.


CONCLUSIONS
Pelvic-floor therapy seems to be a reasonable and meaningful component in the treatment of bladder dysfunction in which detrusor-sphincter dyscoordination plays a role.
Hoebeke
P
P
Department of Urology, University of Gent, Belgium.
Vande Walle
J
J
Theunis
M
M
De Paepe
H
H
Oosterlinck
W
W
Renson
C
C
D000293:Adolescent; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009126:Muscle Relaxation; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000503:physiopathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000628:therapy*