Evidence for Benefit of Transversus Abdominis Training Alone or in Combination With Pelvic Floor Muscle Training to Treat Female Urinary Incontinence: A Systematic Review

Abstract

AIMS: Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) has Level A evidence to treat female urinary incontinence (UI). Recently, indirect training of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) via the transversus abdominis muscle (TrA) has been suggested as a new method to treat UI. The aim of this article is to discuss whether there is evidence for a synergistic co-contraction between TrA and PFM in women with UI, whether TrA contraction is as effective, or more effective than PFMT in treating UI and whether there is evidence to recommend TrA training as an intervention strategy. METHODS: A computerized search on PubMed, and hand searching in proceedings from the meetings of the World Confederation of Physical Ther..