15-22 June 2020 is World Continence Week, a global initiative run by the World Federation of Incontinence Patients with the support of the International Continence Society. Their goal us to help facilitate continence awareness and promote a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment.
Physiotherapists help to improve the quality of life of those with bladder and bowel continence issues across the lifespan. They help diagnose and treat a wide range of conditions such as stress and urge urinary incontinence, faecal incontinence, enuresis, and pelvic pain. Physiotherapists are integral in treatment of continence following pelvic surgery and in some neurological conditions.
There is a significant amount of high-quality clinical research to guide the physiotherapy management of incontinence. PEDro currently indexes over 1,060 clinical practice guidelines, systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials evaluating physiotherapy treatment for people with incontinence. You may like to review the following practice guidelines, which provide useful summaries for physiotherapists working in this clinical area:
- Gormley EA et al. Diagnosis and treatment of overactive bladder (non-neurogenic) in adults: American Urological Association, Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine and Urogenital Reconstruction guideline, 2019
- Burkhard FC et al. European Association of Urology guidelines on assessment and nonsurgical management of urinary incontinence, 2018
- Gravas S et al. Guidelines on the management of non-neurogenic male lower urinary tract symptoms, including benign prostatic obstruction, 2015
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse in women: management (NG123), 2019
The Cochrane Library includes many systematic reviews specific to continence, links to recent reviews can be found below:
- Thomas LH et al. Interventions for treating urinary incontinence after stroke in adults. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;Issue 2
- Bakali E et al. Interventions for treating recurrent stress urinary incontinence after failed minimally invasive synthetic midurethral tape surgery in women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;Issue 9
- Buckley BS et al. Conservative interventions for treating functional daytime urinary incontinence in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2019;Issue 9
To keep up-to-date with the latest trials, reviews and guidelines evaluating physiotherapy interventions for people with incontinence, subscribe to the “continence and women’s health” feed of PEDro’s Evidence in your inbox. Subscription is free.
