| Description |
Pelvic floor disorders (PFD) affect one in four women in the United States. Elevated intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) during daily activity or strenuous physical activity has been identified as a risk factor in the prevalence of PFD. However, the relationship between IAP and physical activity remains poorly understood. Despite the lack of scientific evidence, clinicians oftentimes prescribe long-term activity restrictions to urogynecologic postoperative patients to minimize IAP, which is thought to lessen the load on the pelvic floor. Since many health benefits are associated with exercise, it is necessary to understand how IAP changes with activity in order to reduce risk to the pelvic floor while allowing women to be physically active. Current methods of measuring IAP include invasive catheters in the vagina, rectum, bladder, or stomach that are tethered to laboratory equipment and have been shown to have poor dynamic response. These characteristics limit the potential for tracking IAP during daily physical activity away from the clinic. The objectives of this research were to determine how intra-abdominal routine that may be adapted for postsurgical patients. Three phases of this work included (1) development of a wireless gel-filled intravaginal pressure sensor to accurately track intra-abdominal pressure, (2) testing the newly developed intravaginal sensor in benchtop and in vivo settings to determine the utility of sensors in real-world deployments, and (3) using the wireless intravaginal pressure sensor to characterize IAP during exercise and, based upon results, create a low intra-abdominal pressure routine that can be used to exercise while minimizing pressure load on the pelvic floor. |
