ATLANTA — Most activity restrictions recommended for preventing the progression or recurrence of pelvic floor disorders are unwarranted, results of a small study suggest.
Several daily activities, such as lifting and exercising, are often restricted in patients with pelvic floor disorders and in those who undergo pelvic floor surgery, because there is concern that the activities can increase intraabdominal pressure and thereby exacerbate the disorder, Dr. Larissa F. Weir explained at the annual meeting of the American Urogynecologic Society.
In fact, of 23 physical activities tested in 30 women who were not undergoing treatment for pelvic floor disorders, most had no greater effect on intraabdominal pressure than unavoidable or typically unrestricted activities had, said Dr. Weir, who was a medical student at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, at the time of the study, but who is now a first-year resident at the San Antonio Uniformed Services Health Education Consortium.
Lifting technique with higher-weight items did, however, have an effect on intraabdominal pressure, she noted.
Activity restrictions can have a significant impact on daily life, so it is important that they are based on evidence, Dr. Weir said.
These findings lay a foundation for evidence-based revisions of current activity restriction recommendations, but prospective long-term studies of the impact of intraabdominal pressure on pelvic floor function and of the effects of physical activity on intraabdominal pressure are needed, she added.
Women in the study performed three repetitions of each activity, and intraabdominal pressures were measured using a microtip rectal catheter. The mean peak and net intraabdominal pressures associated with the repetitions were calculated and compared with the baseline values in each patient.
The peak values for activities such as coughing, climbing stairs, and lowering to and rising from the floor, and for exercises such as jumping jacks, abdominal crunches, walking, and jogging on a treadmill were not significantly different from those for rising from a chair. Rising from a chair produced significantly higher abdominal pressures than lifting 8–10 pounds, Dr. Weir said.
The activities that produced the highest peak and net pressures included lifting 20 and 35 pounds off the ground, and forceful coughing; those that produced the lowest peak and net pressures were lifting 8 pounds from a low table, from counter height, and overhead.
As weight increased, lifting technique became more important: Compared with rising from a chair, lifting 8 or 13 pounds from the floor produced less intraabdominal pressure, while lifting 20 pounds from the floor did not. But lifting 20 pounds from counter height did produce less intraabdominal pressure. Lying supine on the ground—an unrestricted activity—produced intraabdominal pressure not significantly different from lifting 35 pounds off a counter. And lifting 35 pounds off a counter produced pressure significantly less than lifting 20 pounds off the ground, she said.