Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises can Effectively Improve Urinary Incontinence after Radical Prostatectomy: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Based on Randomised Controlled Trials

Objective: This study aims to assess the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) on urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP and other domestic and foreign databases were searched for published literature until December 2023 on the effect of pelvic muscle exercise on urinary incontinence in patients after radical prostatectomy. The retrieved literatures were screened, and data were extracted. After evaluating the quality of the literatures, RevMan 5.4 software was used for meta-analysis. Results: This work included nine articles consisting of 1208 sufferers with urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy. The forest plot showed that patients in the experimental group had better postoperative outcomes at 1 month (Relative Risk (RR) = 3.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.83; 6.25)), 3 months (RR = 1.99, 95% CI (1.67; 2.38)) and 6 months (RR = 1.34, 95% CI (1.20; 1.49)). The incidence of urinary incontinence was statistically significant compared with the control group (p < 0.05). Patients in the experimental group 12 months after surgery (RR = 1.13, 95% CI (0.99; 1.23)) showed no significant difference in the incidence of urinary incontinence compared with the control group (p > 0.05). Conclusions: PFME can significantly increase the recovery rate of urinary incontinence in sufferers with prostate cancer at 1, 3 and 6 months after radical surgery but have no significant improvement at 12 months. Urodynamic analysis may be needed for patients with long-term urinary incontinence.