How to perform functional exercises for pelvic floor muscles after radical prostate cancer surgery?

  Prostate cancer is a common malignant tumor of the male genitourinary system, and its incidence increases with age. In recent years, the incidence of prostate cancer in elderly men in China has been on a significant rise.  Radical prostatectomy as the most effective treatment for early prostate cancer is now widely used in clinical practice. However, a series of complications often occur after RP, including urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, postoperative bleeding and urethral anastomotic stricture, among which the incidence of urinary incontinence is 6%-20%, which seriously affects patients’ quality of life and reduces their self-confidence at the same time. Therefore, it is especially important to improve patients’ RP postoperative urinary control function.  Currently, the idea that standardized pelvic floor functional exercises can help restore urinary control function after RP has been widely recognized in clinical practice.  The following is one of the many functional exercises for pelvic floor muscles: patients can choose lying, standing or sitting position according to their own condition, and contract the muscles around pubic bone and coccyx independently without contracting the muscles of lower limbs, abdomen and buttocks for 10s, then relax and rest for 10s, the above action is one time, 20~30 times is one group, one group in the morning, midday and evening every day, and one course of treatment every month. The treatment course will be decided according to the patient’s recovery of urinary control.  At the beginning, we can evaluate whether the patient has correctly mastered the exercise method: ask the patient to take a lateral position, wear disposable gloves, apply paraffin oil to the index finger, gently insert it into the patient’s anus, and ask the patient to perform functional exercise of the pelvic floor muscle, and the method is correct if the finger can feel a tightening sensation in the anal canal. The functional exercise of pelvic floor muscle can make the pelvic floor nerve change, muscle contraction strength and tension increase, provide structural support for the bladder and urethra, and at the same time can enhance the strength of the urethral sphincter.