Effect of pelvic floor exercises on post partum low back pain / Khaled Sayed Ahmed Abd Allah ; Supervised Adly Aly Heider Sabbour , Abeer Mohammed Eldeeb , Walid Ahmed Ayad

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Physical Therapy - Department of Physical Therapy for Gyncololgy and Obstetrics

This study was conducted to determine the effect of pelvic floor exercises on post partum low back pain. Forty women with post partum low back pain aged 25 to 35 years old assigned intwo groups equal in number: control group received lumbar stabilization exercises addressing transverses abdominus and multifidi muscles; while study group received the same stabilizing exercises, in addition to pelvic floor exercises three times per week for twelve weeks. Evaluation was done through assessment of pain severity using visual analogue scale, functional disability using oswestry disability index questionnaire, lumbar range of motion of flexion and extension using modified- modified schober test and through assessing intra vaginal pressure using kegel perineometer pre-and post-treatment. Results revealed that control group and study group showed a highly significant decrease in pain severity (P=0.0001), and functional disability (P=0.0001), and a highly significant increase in lumbar flexion range of motion (P=0.0001), lumbar extension range of motion (P=0.0001) and intra vaginal pressure (P=0.0001). Compared with the control group, the study group showed a highly significant decrease in pain severity (P=0.0001), functional disability (P=0.0001) and highly significant increase in intra vaginal pressure (p=0.0001), while lumbar flexion range of motion and lumbar extension range of motion showed no significant difference between both groups post-treatment (P=0.816), (P=0.355) respectively. It can be concluded that pelvic floor exercises decrease post partum low back pain, improve functional abilities and increase strength of pelvic floor muscles

Issued also as CD