The analysis of two newly developed PFMT protocols, one including standard PFMT and one additionally focusing on involuntary reflexive PFMT, regarding their intervention effects on SUI revealed that the total score of the primary outcome ICIQ-UIsf decreased significantly over time by about 3 points for both groups. However, contrary to the hypothesis, there were no differences between groups at any timepoint. The same applies for the secondary outcomes (pad test, PFM strength test, quality of life). Exceptions were ICIQ-LUTSqol part A, with the CON group showing significant improvement, the EXP group being only close to significance, and the PFM strength indicating a significant difference at baseline (CON > EXP).
Adherence was equally as high in the two groups for personal PT consultations as well as home training sessions.
These results mean that the present training protocol of the experimental group, which additionally focused on involuntary reflexive PFMT, could not show any additional benefit compared with standard PFMT regarding the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.
Interestingly, ICIQ-UIsf score improvement had already reached a floor effect at PT 3 (after 4 of the 16 intervention weeks) in both groups. Because in the first 4 weeks basic information was provided and instructions were practiced in addition to PFMT (information regarding anatomical and (patho-)physiological aspects of SUI, explanation of the function of the pelvic floor, interaction between diaphragm and PFM) [16], it is not possible to draw conclusions about whether the PT effect was due to PFMT or basic information and instructions.
In a comparable study population (baseline mean age, mean ICIQ-UIsf scores and pre- to post-measurement time points) Nyström et al. [21] found that a change in ICIQ-UIsf of ≥2.52 of 21 scores reflected clinically relevant improvements after PFMT in women with SUI. Hence, the current study showed clinically relevant improvements (about 3 points) in SUI in the CON group as well as in the EXP group. After the intervention, both groups still reported moderate SUI (about 7 points) according to the definition of an ICIQ-UIsf score of 6–12 [22], meaning that the participants were still leaking and not completely continent.
Riemsma et al. [23] performed an extensive systematic review on cure rates of incontinence after various interventions, such as surgery, PT, medication, etc. As for SUI, cure rates with supervised PFMT ranged from 5% to 74.8%. However, the studies included used different definitions of cure such as “completely dry,” “a negative cough stress test,” or “much better or very much better on Patient Global Impression of Improvement,” which indicates that the study participants were not necessarily completely free from SUI after the respective intervention and makes it difficult to compare studies. Dumoulin et al. [13] compared PFMT for women with SUI with no treatment, placebo or sham treatments, or other inactive control treatments. Besides studies with other outcomes, they also retrieved several articles using ICIQ-UIsf as an outcome. None of those studies ended in complete absence of SUI after the intervention, and the improvement in ICIQ-UIsf score number was comparable with the results of the present study [13].
Even though PFMT, defined as exercise to improve PFM strength, endurance, power, relaxation, or a combination of these parameters [24], has been shown to be effective [13], the question arises why PFMT cannot restore SUI to a higher percentage than that found by Riemsma et al. [23]. Possible reasons for “only” improvement but often not “complete” cure of SUI could be that relevant training methods (for hypertrophy [improving muscle mass], intramuscular coordination [improving synchronous muscle fiber recruitment and innervation frequency], power [improving rate of activity], and power endurance [improving endurance of rate of activity]) are often not clearly and consistently defined regarding their training parameters [25] and not strictly implemented as progression phases in PFMT protocols. Also, current guidelines for SUI with related PFMT do not or barely mention them [12, 26, 27]. Additionally, those training methods cannot be applied as easily to the PFM as to other skeletal muscles: challenges of the transferability of common training methods to the PFM are, for example, maximum strength and hypertrophy training demanding the use of external weights, high loads, and fatigue [14], PFM anatomy and location allowing only for a tiny range of motion [28], and scarce evidence regarding the effect of specific training methods on the PFMs. To the authors’ knowledge there is only one study that tested for PFM morphology (thickness, levator hiatus area, and pubovisceral muscle length) in women with pelvic organ prolapse before and after PFMT, which has been proved effective for women suffering from SUI [29]. If one compares the effect regarding the increase in muscle mass (15.6% relative to baseline) of this study with that of other studies, significantly higher increases in muscle mass of 22–37% in the leg muscles, for example, can be seen [30].
Compared with common skeletal muscle training the following points could have impaired the outcome of the present trial and therefore are a limitation of the interpretation of its results:
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For feasibility reasons training methods were applied during rather too short time intervals (4 months in total) compared with scientifically based and common phase durations of skeletal muscle training method phases (at least 6 months in total), which are necessary because of adequate periods of biological adaptation (sensorimotor components, inter- and intramuscular coordination, hypertrophy, etc.) [14]. In particular, this could be a major reason why the EXP group no longer made any progress in these training phases. This resulted from a pragmatic clinical trial approach, in terms of therapy duration, to be comparable with common SUI PT (9 personal PT consultations = typical PT duration according to medical prescription and meeting of costs by health care insurance in Switzerland). Other reasons were recruitment and participation issues such as manageable therapy and study time span for participants.
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Training standardization as necessary for an RCT and an approach according to scientific criteria prohibit adaptation of the training parameters to individual factors and progress status to guarantee comparability. Individual training method phase length would need specific criteria regarding functional perception and movement quality, muscle mass, strength, power, and power endurance of the PFMs for start and termination of each progression phase of training. Hodges et al. [31] introduced such criteria for PFM motor learning—coordinative training to improve a movement sequence done by improving inter- and intramuscular coordination—for men after radical prostatectomy, as so far, those and the other above-mentioned criteria for the phase lengths of training methods (i.e., criteria defining when to start and when to terminate a specific training method phase and therefore indicating its time period) are non-existent in PFMT for women with SUI.
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Compared with common skeletal muscle training [14], the training methods for hypertrophy, intramuscular coordination, power, and power endurance might not have been applied consistently enough regarding intensity, exhaustion, and strain for feasibility reasons (e.g., no external weights). As nothing is known about the improvement of power and power endurance of the PFMs so far, the known training methodology that was applied in the EXP group would have to be investigated specifically for the PFMs and modified if necessary.
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A specific study limitation was that in the EXP group, a few participants could for a short time period not perform exercises of involuntary reflexive PFMT such as running on the spot or jumping owing to, for example, knee or low back complaints, or fear of jumping because of perceived lack of physical fitness. The reasons were therefore neither related to the training protocol of the EXP group nor caused by these specific training exercises.
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A very fundamental question is how well participants with an initial maximum strength of an Oxford grade M3 or lower can be trained at all. With such severely weakened PFM strength, it is possible that the maximum strength would first have to be increased (e.g., at least M4) in order to achieve effects in terms of hypertrophy and power. Additionally, it has to be taken into account that the EXP group had a significantly lower PFM strength at the beginning of the study. This could have limited the possible effects of the EXP group in comparison with the CON group.
A potential weakness of the present trial is that reflex activity and neural components were not assessed initially, which would have probably been feasible by pudendal nerve latency measurement. However, this technique is rather difficult to apply in our setting and frequent false-positive results may be achieved [32].
The aim of this first study with additional reactive PFM training was to fundamentally evaluate whether or not an additional effect could be shown. Therefore, and for reasons of recruitment and feasibility, the inclusion criteria were relatively broad. Even though this was a randomized controlled trial and no differences regarding baseline characteristics were shown between the groups, the rather broad inclusion criteria, such as large age span or number of births, could indicate a weakness of this trial. More specific samples should be chosen for future investigations.
Study strengths are the adequate statistical power, with few drop-outs and detailed standardized PT protocols in terms of basic information, instructions, and phases of PFMT methods for motor learning, strength, hypertrophy, power, and power endurance, with exact description of the training methodology such as muscle action, velocity of muscle action, loading, volume, rest periods, and frequency. Moreover, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this trial is the first to investigate a PFMT protocol focusing on involuntary PFM reactivity, i.e., not only focusing on voluntary PFMT.