Incontinence Treatment

EMG Biofeedback is the most effective treatment for stress Incontinence. Most people have heard about "Kegel Exercises to improve the condition of the pelvic floor muscles, however very few people are aware that Dr. Kegel developed the exercises to be used with a biofeedback device that he build himself.

Dr. Kegel used a pressure feedback instrument, which consisted of a rubber bulb that was inserted in the vagina and was connected to a pressure gauge. This simple device gave a reading based on the strength of contraction in the vagina.

Presure reading instruments are still sold today, they are not as accurate as EMG instruments and as they only respond to changes in the muscle tension they can not detect cases where the muscles are held Tense to begin with. Trying to contract an already tense muscle can cause pain. They also can not detect is the muscles are in spasm, again a cause of pain.
EMG biofeedback is used treat Incontinence by retraining the pelvic floor muscles. This can be done using external sensors placed either side of the vaginal opening or by a sensor probe placed in the vagina.

The probe is the prefered method as it gives more accurate reading and the patient can, if using our or similar probes that are self locating and retained, insert the probe themselves in private and carry the biofeedback while dressed and seated.

The external sensors require the patient to be fully exposed while the sensors are positioned and may have to remain like that for the duration of the session.

The probe also allows the patient to carry out home practice.

Once the sensor is in place then it can be attached to an EMG instrument to get readings.

This will tell at once if the muscles are being held tense by giving a high reading when the muscles are relaxed. If this is the case then the first relearning will be to really relax the muscles.

Usually the muscles a just weak. This can be seen when the patient tenses the muscles, a very low reading sometimes only slightly above the resting level is seen.

The task now us to practice contracting and relaxing the muscle. The typical procedure is to contract for 5 to 10 seconds and then relax for 10 seconds. This is repeated untill the patient shows fatigue. This practice needs to be done 2 to 3 times a day. Slowly the reading for the contracted muscle will go up indicating the muscle is becoming stronger.

With daily practice it is possible to become fully continent in 6 weeks. One of the great things about this Incontinence treatment is that the woman is in control of her own health.

As with any medical problem you should be examined by a Doctor to eliminate any other cause before doing the training.

To check out the equipment used go to our EMG page and the sensor on our EMG Sensors page

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