Urinary incontinency after radical prostatectomy and effects of 1 month pre-operative biofeedback training

Radical prostatectomy is one of the treatment choices in patients with prostate cancer. Urinary incontinency is a common complication of this surgery that could significantly influence on the quality of life (QOL) in patients. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of pre-operative biofeedback training on this issue.

This is a randomized controlled clinical trial that was performed in 2017-2021 on 240 patients that were candidates for radical prostatectomy. The demographic data of all patients including age and gender were collected. The patients were randomized into two groups each containing 120 patients. The first group of patients were visited by an experienced physiotherapist and he instructed them in pelvic floor muscle training (Kegel training) using biofeedback technique in a one-hour-long training class for one month before their surgery. The other group received no pelvic floor muscle training instructions. Presence of urinary incontinence was asked from all patients 24 hours, one week, one month, three months and six months after removal of the patients' urinary catheter. We used International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Male Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (ICIQ-MLUTS) long-form questionnaire to obtain data regarding urinary incontinence. By the means of this questionnaire, we evaluated patient's QOL.

The QOL of patients in the intervention group was significantly higher within 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 3 months after the surgical operations compared to the control group (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed between groups at the 6 months after the surgeries (P>0.05).

Biofeedback has significant short-term effects on the urinary incontinence immediately after the surgical operation. We also observed that biofeedback had no significant long-term effects.