Abstract:
Pelvic floor disorders (PFD), such as urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, affect more than 25% of the female population. These conditions are not only emotionally and physically distressing, but they also place an immense financial burden on the healthcare system. The situation is becoming increasingly dire as demand for pelvic floor treatment increases with the growing aging population. Urinary incontinence alone is expected to affect more than 423 million individuals worldwide by 2018. These alarmingly high figures are likely to be gross underestimations of the true extent of the problem, since only a very small portion of women seek help. One in five women will require surgery for either incontinence or prolapse by the age of 80. The reoperation rate is as high as 30 %. This underlines the need for improved treatment and prevention strategies. In particular, the prevention of PFD should be a major focus since it eliminates both primary and recurrent problems. Pelvic floor muscle exercises (PFME) that strengthen muscles and enhance pelvic organ support have proven to be effective in the prevention and treatment of PFD. Worryingly, studies revealed that more than 30% of women are unable to contract their pelvic floor muscles (PFM) correctly. It is crucial to educate these women about the importance of PFME and to teach them correct contraction techniques. Vaginal palpation is commonly used by clinicians to provide biofeedback. However, this method is imprecise, subjective, and not reproducible. A different method for assessing PFM strength and function is by evaluating the vaginal pressure profile. This method is used by some commercial and research devices. However, the existing commercial devices are poorly received due to their limited performance and painful usage. Likewise, the existing research devices also suffer significant drawbacks such as imprecise measurement techniques, low sampling rates, static connection to assisting devices and difficult handling. In light of the poor performance of these existing devices, we have developed a compliant and wireless intra-vaginal pressure sensing array (IVPSA) to record the vaginal pressure profile at rest and during PFME. The device contained an array of sensors to accurately record pressures in the different vaginal pressure zones. In the near future data will be sent via Bluetooth to an Android device and displayed by a user-friendly interfacing application. This project aimed to develop a better performing device to help women train their pelvic floor.