Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise for Paediatric Functional Constipation.
BACKGROUND
Functional constipation (FC) is one of the most common gastrointestinal problems among children. This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle exercise on treatment of FC.


METHODS
In this study which was conducted in Children's Medical Center, children with a diagnosis of FC (aged 4-18 y) who did not respond to medical treatment, performed sessions of pelvic floor muscle exercise at home twice a day for 8 wk. Frequency of defecation, overall improvement of constipation, stool withholding, painful defecation and stool consistency were measured at the final week of the intervention compared to baseline.


RESULTS
Forty children (16 males, 24 females mean age 5.6±1.03 y) completed the 8-wk exercise program. Subjective overall improvement of the symptoms was present in 36 patients (90%). The changes in stool frequency, stool diameter and consistency were statistically significant. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the stool withholding, fecal impaction, fecal incontinence and painful defecation.


CONCLUSIONS
Pelvic floor muscle exercise is an effective non-pharmacologic treatment for Paediatric FC.
Faculty, Department of Paediatric, Gastroenterology, Children Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran .
Fatemeh
F
Farahmand
Faculty, Department of Paediatric, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran .
Aidin
A
Abedi
Faculty, Department of Paediatric, Non-Communicable Pediatric Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences , Babol, IR Iran .
Mohammad Reza
MR
Esmaeili-Dooki
Faculty, Department of Paediatric, Tehran University of Medical Sciences , Tehran, Iran .
Rozita
R
Jalilian
Faculty, Department of Paediatric, Non-Communicable Pediatric Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Babol University of Medical Sciences , Babol, IR Iran .
Sanaz Mehrabani
SM
Tabari
Defecation frequency; Gastrointestinal problems; Non-pharmacologic treatment