Ces Urol 2015, 19(2):131-136 | DOI: 10.48095/cccu2015016

Physiotherapy in treating urinary incontinence in women

Jan Krhut^1,2, Romana Holaňová³, Marcel Gärtner⁴, David Míka^1,2

¹ Urologické oddělení, FN Ostrava

² Katedra chirurgických oborů LF OU Ostrava

³ Klinika léčebné rehabilitace, FN Ostrava

⁴ Gynekologicko-porodnická klinika LF OU a FN Ostrava

Krhut J, Holaňová R, Gärtner M, Míka D. Physiotherapy in treating urinary incontinence in women. Urinary incontinence is one of the most common health problems especially in the female population. Globally hundreds of millions of people suffer from urinary incontinence. Over the last two decades, we have witnessed a growing interest in this field by both health care professionals and the general public. The main two forms of incon tinence are stress urinary incontinence and urge incontinence. Physiotherapy played in the treatment of incontinence always rather marginal role and traditionally was recommended only for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence. This paper presents a new perspective on the role of physiotherapy in the treatment of urinary incontinence. Thanks to advances our knowledge in recent years, physical therapy is now regarded as a fully-fledged and widely applicable method of treatment for both stress and urinary incontinence, as well as an overactive bladder (symptom complex characterized by urgency, with or without urge incontinence, usually associated with frequency).

Keywords: Stress urinary incontinence, overactive blader, physiotherapy, pelvic floor muscles, behavioral treatment.

Received: January 14, 2015; Accepted: February 28, 2015; Prepublished online: May 2, 2015; Published: July 5, 2015