Effectiveness of Biofeedback Therapy as Conservative Choice for Management of Female Stress Urinary Incontinence

Sa？etak The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of biofeedback (BF) therapy in females with stress urinary incontinence by a systematic review of available literature database. Materials and methods. A search of the MEDLINE database in order to find articles related to biofeedback therapy for treating incontinence. The keywords which were used to search the database were: "biofeedback", "women", "stress urinary incontinence". Analyses included full-length, peer-reviewed articles reporting on outcomes of treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) using BF in 18-year-old women and older, from any country, treated in any care setting. The inclusion criteria were that it was an original research, not older than five years and written in English. Results. The search of the database yielded a total of 123 articles. Further analysis determined that 32 articles were suitable with respect to this study’s search criteria. Finally, the analysis included 5 articles. The studies are from different parts of the world: Egypt, Poland, China, Malaysia and Japan. Two articles are from 2013 and 2015, and one was published in 2016. Three studies evaluated the efficacy of biofeedback therapy (BF therapy) versus self-performed Kegel exercises, and two studies compared biofeedback therapy with electro-stimulation. Conclusion. Although almost all studies (4 of the 5 analysed) report a positive impact of biofeedback therapy in treating SUI, further research on a more homogeneous group, employing standardized protocols, should be conducted in the future