Electroacupuncture and Pelvic Floor Muscle Training for Male Stress Urinary Incontinence

Overview

The goal of this clinical study is to compare the effects of combined electroacupuncture with pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) versus PFMT alone in the treatment of involuntary urine leakage following prostate removal procedure due to prostate cancer. The main goal is to determine that whether adding electroacupuncture to PFMT provides extra benefits in relieving urinary leakage and improves patients' quality of life. All participants will be required to perform daily PFMT for 6 weeks using uniformed standards. During the meantime, those assigned to the experimental group will additionally receive electroacupuncture three times per week for 6 weeks, while those in control group will receive sham treatment with same duration. Researchers will compare the urine leakage severity between the two groups to see if adding electroacupuncture can facilitate the recovery of symptom.

This randomized controlled trial will recruit patients presenting stress urinary incontinence 6 weeks after radical prostatectomy, with the aim to determine whether adding electroacupuncture therapy to pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) provides extra benefits in relieving stress urinary incontinence following radical prostatectomy. Followed by signing the informed consent and baseline assessments, participants with be randomly allocated to either PFMT plus electroacupuncture arm or PFMT plus sham electroacupuncture arm in a 1:1 ratio. Pelvic floor muscle training will be conducted daily using a consistent approach. In short, before training, the patients are required to empty the bladder and relax the whole body in a sitting or lying position. The contraction of the pelvic floor muscles is maintained for 2-6 seconds, followed by a relaxation for 2-6 seconds. This process is repeated 10 times per session, three sessions per day (in the morning, afternoon and evening), and performed daily for 6 continuous weeks. Electroacupuncture will be performed at bilateral Zhongliao, Huiyang, Zhongji, Guanyuan and Dahe, three treatment sessions per week for 6 consecutive weeks. For sham electroacupuncture, The same acupoints will be punctured as that in treatment group, except the use of blunt-tipped needles (identical in appearance compared with normal needles) to puncture through the fixed pad and to reach the skin surface. In both groups, the needles will be clamped by electrodes which are connected to a pulse generator (Huatuo SDZ- EA, Suzhou, China). In consistency with our previous settings, continuous wave with frequency of 50Hz will be used. The current intensity is gradually increased ranging from 1mA to 5mA, according to the patient's tolerance. Patients will be appraised at baseline, 3, 6, 10 and 18 weeks after the initiation of treatments to determine the changes of incontinence symptom, quality of life and pelvic structures. The primary outcome is the change of urine leakage amount during a 1-hour pad test at 6-week timepoint. The secondary outcomes include parameters derived from the International Consultation on Incontinence Modular Questionnaire - urinary incontinence short form, mean 24-hour pad use, pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (except for those with contraindications, such as metallic implants or psychological disorders), and the documentation of adverse events. The statistical analysis of the baseline and outcomes at each timepoint is based on the intention-to-treat population. In addition, the data analysis of the primary outcome is also based on the per-protocol population as a supportive analysis. Quantitative variables will be compared using either independent t-tests or Mann-Whitney U-tests based on their normality. The statistical significance between nominal variables will be detected using Pearson's chi-squared tests or Fisher's exact tests. Statistical analysis will be performed using both SPSS software and R package, and the level of significance will be set at \<0.05.