[Impact of global postural reeducation for treatment of female stress urinary incontinence].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of global postural reeducation (GPR) on stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and quality of life in SUI female patients


METHODS
The study design was a prospective non-randomized clinical trial. Twenty-six patients with symptoms of SUI were selected from the Urogynecology Outpatient Clinics of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), state of São Paulo, Brazil. Age ranged from 23 to 72 years old (mean 50.8). All women were submitted to anamnesis, physical exam, postural evaluation and urodynamic testing. Patients were treated by the GPR in individual 50 minute sessions weekly for three months and twice a month for the next three months. All patients were re-evaluated at the end of treatment and six months later by means of General Impression of Improvement, Incontinence Impact, General Perception of Health, Functional Evaluation of the Pelvic Floor, Number of Leaking Episodes and Pad Use.


RESULTS
At the end of treatment 4 (16%) of the patients were cured, 18 (72%) had improved significantly and 3 (12%) failed. At 6 months, 6 (24%) were cured, 16 (64%) improved and 3 (12%) failed (p<0.001). Quality of Life questionnaires presented significant improvement (p<0.05) in all domains, with emphasis on General Perception of Health, Incontinence Impact and number of leaking episodes. The Functional Evaluation of the Pelvic Floor and Pad Use also presented significant (p<0.001) improvement.


CONCLUSIONS
These results may demonstrate that GPR is an efficient alternative for treatment of stress urinary incontinence.
Fozzatti
Maria Celina Martins
MC
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil.
Palma
Paulo
P
Herrmann
Viviane
V
Dambros
Miriam
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016496:Incontinence Pads; D008875:Middle Aged; D052580:Muscle Stretching Exercises / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017773:Pelvic Floor / Q000502:physiology; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*