Kegel exercises may help improve recovery of continence after radical prostatectomy

There are experts that always have believed that preoperative training of the pelvic floor muscles (using Kegel exercises) would be likely to improve recovery of continence after radical prostatectomy, but there have never (as far as we know) been any good data to substantiate this belief.

An Italian research at San Raffaele Turro Hospital, Milan, has now published data from a small, randomized clinical trial suggesting that, indeed, men who started to train their pelvic floor muscles prior to radical prostatectomy and continued the Kegel exercises after surgery did indeed seem to recover continence sooner than men who only started Kegel exercises after their surgery.

The authors conclude that preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise may improve early continence and patients’ quality of life outcomes after retropublic prostatectomy.