Effect of Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise on Pain Intensity in Women after Colorectal Surgery

Aims: Pain is one of the most important complications after colorectal surgery, and recently the use of non-pharmacological methods to reduce this complication researchers’ attention has been drawn. This study aimed to determine the effect of pelvic floor muscle exercise on the severity of pain in women after colorectal surgery. Materials Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, all female patients with one of the benign colorectal diseases were referred to Be’sat, and Shahid Rajaei hospitals of Gachsaran and Shahid Beheshti hospital of Yasuj, Iran, in 2016 were studied. Ninety-six patients were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Patients in the preoperative intervention group were trained to exercise the pelvic floor muscles, and these postoperative contraction exercises were performed 60-100 times a day. 6, 12, 18, 24, and 48 hours after surgery, pain intensity was collected using a numerical pain scale. Data collected in SPSS 22 were analyzed by independent t-test, chi-square, Fisher’s exact, and Mann-Whitney tests. Findings: The mean pain intensity in both intervention and control groups decreased over time after surgery. No significant differences were comparing the means of pain intensity in 6, 12, 18, 24, and 48 hours after the surgery between the two groups (p 0.05). Conclusion: Pelvic floor muscle exercise intervention has no effect on the severity of pain in women after colorectal surgery.