Benefits of Peri-surgical Physical Therapy in the Management of III and IV Grades of Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Benefits of Peri-surgical Physical Therapy in the Management of III and IV Grades of Pelvic Organ Prolapse

To find out the effectiveness of physical therapy associated with the surgical treatment over the simptoms and quality of life in III and IV grades of pelvic organ prolapse, patients will be randomly assigned to one of these groups: experimental group: pre-surgical and post-surgical physical therapy + behavioral education + surgical therapy. Control group: surgical treatment + behavioral education.

In both groups several physical therapy assessments will be undertaken: 1st before surgery; 2nd immediately after surgery; and after 6 weeks, 3th, 6th, 12th and 24th months post-surgery.

Intervention in the experimental group, patients assigned to this group will receive:

• Pre-surgical physical therapy: 9 sessions of physical therapy aimed at correcting posture, to the awareness and the strengthening of the pelvic floor muscles. They will be also informed and instructed on hygienic and behavioral education to prevent pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. Each session will be about 45 minutes and 3 sessions will be held a week for 3 weeks.

• Post-surgical Physical Therapy:

  2. Hospital discharge patients will receive the same fact sheet on sanitary and behavioral measures recommended for the prevention of pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence.

  3. 6th weeks after surgery: 8 physical therapy sessions (2 per week for 4 weeks) about 30 minutes to review hypopressive exercises and contractions of the pelvic floor.

Intervention in the control group, patients assigned to this group will receive:

After surgical correction of pelvic organ prolapse, at hospital discharge, patients will receive a fact sheet on the sanitary and behavioral measures recommended for the prevention of pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence (proper weight, prevent constipation, avoid weight bearing and cough and high impact exercise). No physical therapy intervention will be performed.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Consecutive women diagnosed with grade III and IV pelvic organ prolapse, which would be operated for this reason at the Asturias Prince Hospital (Madrid-Spain).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Women diagnosed with different III / IV grade of POP or a history of conservative treatment not from the subproject "Physiotherapy in the POP grades I and II", or a history of POP surgery, or concurrent conditions that would be affect the treatment (neurological, gynecological or urological), or recurrent urinary infection or hematuria, or those III / IV grades in POP which is contraindicated or not possible to perform surgery.
• Pregnant women or women with a vaginal birth in the last six months.
• Women with cognitive limitations to understand the information, answer questionnaires, consent and / or participate in the study.