Pelvic floor muscle exercise therapy with myofeedback for women with stress urinary incontinence: A meta-analysis

Involuntary urine loss can be a major social and hygienic problem for women suffering from stress urinary incontinence (SUI). A frequently applied treatment method for these women is pelvic floor muscle exercise therapy (PFE), either with or without EMG-biofeedback (myofeedback). This paper attempts to determine the efficacy of PFE using myofeedback by reviewing in a meta-analysis several studies that used this treatment method for women with SUI. An effort is also made to determine whether PFE with myofeedback deserves preference to PFE without myofeedback. The results show very few studies using a randomised control-group design with high statistical and internal validity. Although no conclusive evidence is presented, the following trend can be discerned: PFE with myofeedback is an effective treatment method for women with SUI and is more effective than PFE without myofeedback.