Biofeedback is an amazing tool where we can use visual and auditory feedback to assist in the treatment of many diagnoses. We can utilize biofeedback when we need your pelvic floor muscles to be working optimally as in cases of prostatectomy, pelvic organ prolapse, and some urinary and fecal incontinence cases. We can utilize biofeedback when we need your pelvic floor to be relaxed such as in cases of painful intercourse, urinary hesitancy, and dyssynergic defecation.

The internal or external sensor takes the information picked up from your pelvic floor and turns it into a picture that you can see. We can use an additional external sensor placed on the abdominal muscles maximize coordination, timing, and recruitment patterns. Some of the things you can expect us to look at are:

• Resting Recruitment: The underlying “busyness” of the pelvic floor muscles.
• Recruitment: How well you are able to turn your muscles on
• Derecruitment: How well you are able to turn your muscles off
• Coordination: What happens to the pelvic floor when you are breathing, can you control how much you are turning the pelvic floor on, can you turn it on fast and slow, can you keep the muscles relaxed when you need to bear down to have a bowel movement.

Biofeedback only takes the information from your body and makes a picture therefore there is no electrical stimulation or communication being delivered from the machine back to your body.

Biofeedback works best when that information is taken and immediately applied to a functional task to ensure carryover with the patient’s home exercise program.