Assessment of Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise using Vaginal Cone in Stress Urinary Incontinence of Korea Women

Kim, Jin Hong; Yoo, Sun Won; Kil, Ki Cheol; Cheon, Yeon Hee; Choi, Hyoung Ju; Lee, Ji Eun; Cho, Hyun Hee; Rha, Jong Gu; Kim, Soo Pyung

Abstract

Defective or inadequate pelvic floor function is important etiologic factor for urinary stress incontinence and uterine prolapse. Pelvic floor muscle exercise is the mainstream of the nonoperative treatment for female stress urinary incontinence. Especially Vaginal cones have been known as a simple and practical means of improving both pelvic floor muscle strength and genuine stress incontinence using biofeedback mechanism. Forty adult women suffering from mild and moderate stress incontincnce were instructed to exercise their pelvic muscles using vaginal cones. They retained cones of increasing weight in the vagina by contracting pelvic floor muscles for 15 minutes twice a day for 4 weeks. The comparison of pelvic floor muscle function before and after the exercise were assessed by the frequency of incontinence, vaginal digital palpation, vaginal pressure measurement and speculm lift test. The results were as follows; 1. The frequency of incontinence was significantly reduced after the exercise using vaginal cone (P<0.001). 2. Vaginal digital palpation score (strength of vaginal levator muscle) was significantly increased after the exercise using vaginal cone (P<0.001). 3. The vaginal pressure by perineometer was significantly increased after the exercise using vaginal cones (P<0.001). 4. The vaginal lumen during contraction was significantly narrower after the exercise using vaginal cones (P<0.001). 5. The maximal cone weight which patients could hold over 1 minute was significantly increased after the exercise using vaginal cones (P<0.001).