Urinary and Fecal Incontinence: Risk factors and EMG-BFB effectiveness

Urinary and Fecal Incontinence are not life-threatening diseases but affect the quality of life of people who suffers them, even more than hypertension or diabetes. Most people deny incontinence symptoms because of shame. In that scenario, the prevalence may be understimated. Incontinence is highly related to age.It produces great use of medical resources, in such an extent to be consider as a problem of Public Health. It is believed that 1.7 million male and 4 million female suffer Urinary Incontinence nowadays in Spain. Menopause, childbirth, pregnancy, abdominal/urological/colorectal surgeries in females; and radical prostatecthomy, abdominal and colorectal surgeries in males, are risk factors for Urinary and Fecal Incontinence. The conservative treatment includes standards of conduct, pelvic floor muscle training exercises and biofeedback. Electromyography biofeedback is the technique most used/studied worldwide. There is no consensus neither on the type of exercises, nor on protocols. We present an EMG-BFB protocol applied at Salamancäs University Hospital, which has been effective in Fecal and all types of Urinary Incontinence, including the Urgency type, for the first time.