The Efficiency of Rehabilitation Therapy in Patients Diagnosed with Neurogenic Bladder: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Considerable research efforts have been directed towards investigating neurogenic bladder dysfunction over the preceding decade. This condition stands as the most prevalent and incapacitating pelvic floor disorder amidst patients afflicted with specific upper motor neuron syndromes, including multiple sclerosis, stroke, and spinal cord injury. The current study aims to bring up-to-date findings on rehabilitation methods for treating neurogenic bladder. The Web of Science database (MEDLINE, PsychINFO, EMBASE, CENTRAL, ISRCTN, and ICTRP) was screened for randomized controlled studies and clinical studies using combinations of keywords including "neurogenic bladder", "stroke", "multiple sclerosis", and "spinal cord injury". The PEDro scale was used to assess the quality of the articles included in this study. After a thorough examination, eleven articles met the criteria for inclusion in our research. The outcome measures showed a variety of forms of electrostimulation that can be combined with or without PFMT. These interventions significantly enhance health-related quality of life, as evidenced by various assessment methods. The physical approach constitutes an effective therapeutic method that can reduce the severity of urinary incontinence.

Keywords: electrophysical agents; multiple sclerosis; neurogenic bladder; pelvic floor; physical therapy; rehabilitation; spinal cord injury; stroke.

Figure 1

PRISMA diagram flow. * = studies focused on assessing activities of daily living in patients with NB (n = 4), studies aimed at validating the SF-Qualiveen questionnaire (n = 3), and a study (n = 1) analyzing physical factors that may cause detrusor contraction.

Figure 2

Application of electrodes in tibial nerve electrostimulation techniques (A) and parasacral electrostimulation (B) [6].