Pelvic floor stimulation: what are the good vibrations?

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Pelvic floor muscle weakness affects a significant portion of the population, particularly postpartum women.
• Whole body vibration (WBV) is an emerging therapeutic modality with potential applications in muscle activation.
• Understanding the efficacy of different WBV types is crucial for targeted rehabilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the reactive activation of pelvic floor muscles (PFM) using two distinct WBV types: sinusoidal vibration (SV) and stochastic resonance vibration (SRV).
• To compare the PFM activation levels elicited by varying intensities of SV and SRV.
• To assess the effectiveness of these vibration types in healthy controls versus postpartum individuals with weakened PFM.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study involving healthy controls and postpartum women with weakened PFM.
• Pelvic floor electromyography (EMG) was utilized to measure PFM activation.
• Six increasing intensities of both SV and SRV were applied, with responses compared to rest and maximum voluntary contraction (MVC).

Main Results:

• Both SV and SRV significantly activated PFM in a dose-dependent manner.
• SRV generally induced significantly higher PFM activation compared to SV across tested intensities.
• SRV, especially at 6-12 Hz, achieved activation levels exceeding MVC, notably in the postpartum group.

Conclusions:

• SRV is more effective than SV in activating PFM, particularly in individuals with pelvic floor weakness.
• SRV can elicit PFM activation greater than MVC, offering a promising therapeutic approach.
• The findings suggest SRV as a potentially valuable tool for PFM rehabilitation.