Preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise for early continence after radical prostatectomy: a randomised controlled study.

Background: Despite improvements in surgical techniques, urinary incontinence (UI) is not uncommon after radical prostatectomy (RP), and it may dramatically worsen quality of life (QoL).

Objective: To determine the benefit of starting pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) 30d before RP and of continuing PFME postoperatively for early recovery of continence.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A randomised, prospective study was designed. Men with localised prostate cancer (PCa) who underwent an open radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) at our department of urology were included.

Intervention: Patients were randomised to start PFME preoperatively and continue postoperatively (active group: A) or to start PFME postoperatively alone (control group: B).

Measurements: The primary outcome measure was self-reported continence after surgery. Secondary outcome measures were assessed by degree of UI based on a 24-h pad test and QoL instruments (International Continence Society [ICS] male short form [SF]).

Results And Limitations: Of 143 men evaluated for the study, 118 were randomised either to start PFME preoperatively and continue postoperatively (group A; n=59) or to start postoperative PFME (group B; n=59). After 1 mo, 44.1% (26 of 59) of patients were continent in group A, while 20.3% (12 of 59) were continent in group B (p=0.018). At 3 mo, 59.3% (35 of 59) and 37.3% (22 of 59) patients were continent in group A and group B, respectively (p=0.028). The ICS male SF mean score showed better results in group A than in group B patients at both 1 mo (14.6 vs 18.3) and 3 mo (8.1 vs 12.2) after RP (p=0.002). In age-adjusted logistic regression analyses, patients who performed preoperative PFME had a 0.41-fold lower risk of being incontinent 1 mo after RP and a 0.38-fold lower risk of being incontinent 3 mo after RP (p≤0.001).

Conclusions: Preoperative PFME may improve early continence and QoL outcomes after RP. Further studies are needed to corroborate our results.