Hypothesis / aims of study
Neurourological patients should follow multimodal treatments, and several specialties are involved in the correct management of their bladder dysfunction when present.
The aim of this original study is to show physical therapy's results in a sample of patients with neurogenic bladder.
Study design, materials and methods
Retrospective study of 1073 patients treated with physical therapy in a single centre in Spain from January 2005 to January 2019. In this sample, 153 patients were diagnosed with neurogenic bladder.
According to the response to treatment, patients were divided in three groups:
• Group A: patients with a great improvement after treatment;
• Group B: patients with a mild-moderate improvement after treatment;
• Group C: patients with no improvement after physical therapy.
Variables investigated: age, secondary diagnoses, physical examination, complementary studies, neurogenic bladder dysfunction's ethiology, average follow-up, ICIQ-SF and SF-36 questionnaires' scores at three and six months, and yearly thereafter.
Descriptive statistics were performed.
Interpretation of results
In the physical therapy unit of a single centre, 14% of patients with pelvic floor dysfunction had a primary diagnosis of neurogenic bladder. Given the reduced number of patients in most groups, it was not possible to perform inferential statistics. However, most patients showed an improvement after the different modalities of physical therapy. Pelvic floor muscle training with biofeedback is usually associated with the strengthening of pelvic floor muscles to prevent urine leakage, but they also suppress urgency, help to relax the muscle to improve bladder emptying and relieve pelvic pain caused by muscle spasm. Only studies with a small number of patients have shown a possible effect of pelvic floor muscle training in neurourological patients. Multicentre studies could give more light to the role of pelvic floor muscle training with biofeedback in this population.