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Review
. 2023 Mar 27;12(7):2536.
doi: 10.3390/jcm12072536.

Physiotherapy as an Effective Method to Support the Treatment of Male Urinary Incontinence: A Systematic Review

Agnieszka Mazur-Bialy  1 , Sabina Tim  1 , Daria Kołomańska-Bogucka  1 , Bartłomiej Burzyński  2 , Tomasz Jurys  2 , Natalia Pławiak  3
Affiliations
Review

Physiotherapy as an Effective Method to Support the Treatment of Male Urinary Incontinence: A Systematic Review

Agnieszka Mazur-Bialy et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI) is a serious health issue that affects both women and men. The risk of UI increases in men with age and after treatment for prostate cancer and affects up to 32% of men. Furthermore, UI may affect up to 69% of men after prostatectomy. Considering such a high incidence, it is critical to search for effective methods to mitigate this issue. Hence, the present review aims to provide an overview of physiotherapeutic methods and evaluate their effectiveness in treating UI in men. This systematic review was performed using articles included in PubMed, Embase, WoS, and PEDro databases. A total of 6965 relevant articles were found. However, after a risk of bias assessment, 39 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The research showed that the available physiotherapeutic methods for treating men with UI, including those after prostatectomy, involve pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) alone or in combination with biofeedback (BF) and/or electrostimulation (ES), vibrations, and traditional activity. In conclusion, PFMT is the gold standard of UI therapy, but it may be complemented by other techniques to provide a personalized treatment plan for patients. The effectiveness of the physiotherapeutic methods varies from study to study, and large methodological differences make it difficult to accurately compare individual results and draw unequivocal conclusions.

Keywords: biofeedback; electrostimulation; men; pelvic floor muscle training; physiotherapy; prostatectomy; urinary incontinence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
RoB analysis (n = 55). Low risk studies: [16,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,35,36,37,39,40,41,42,43,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53], some concerns studies: [17,18,34,38,44,54], high risk studies [62,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86].
Figure A2
Figure A2
Summary plot of the overall risk of bias (n = 55).
Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram of selection study.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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