Pelvic floor acceleration is damped compared to skeletal acceleration while walking

One in four American women suffer from pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) [1]. Current research shows the cause of pelvic organ prolapse is multifactorial, with risk factors including vaginal childbirth and advancing age [2]. To facilitate the development of prevention strategies and treatments to minimize the impact of PFDs on a person's quality of life, it is important to understand how the anatomy of the pelvic floor changes when a person presents with a PFD. A study was developed to present a method to analyze the mechanics of the PF through comparing the movement of the pelvic floor to that of the skeleton during exercise. An intravaginal transducer was fitted with an instrumentation module to record acceleration at the pelvic floor along with the hip's skeletal acceleration. Study participants walked on a treadmill in three stages of increasing speed and inclination. Data processing analyzed the acceleration data for each of the three walking stages along the three anatomical planes of motion. The data showed that the pelvic floor acceleration is consistently greater than the skeletal acceleration along the plane of motion with positive acceleration towards the participant's right. Pelvic floor acceleration was consistently smaller than skeletal acceleration when measured along the planes of motion with positive acceleration towards the participant's anterior and cranial directions. A majority of the differences between the magnitude of pelvic floor and skeletal accelerations were found to be significantly different (p<0.05). This method is proposed to be used on larger scale trials to facilitate a deeper understanding of the pelvic floor mechanics which will allow for the development of treatment and prevention strategies for PFDs.