Effectiveness of auricular acupuncture and pelvic floor muscle training in the management of urinary incontinence following surgical treatment for prostate cancer: a randomized clinical trial

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture combined with pelvic floor muscle training to
manage urinary incontinence following radical prostatectomy.
Methods: This is a randomized clinical trial that was conducted between April 2019 and April 2020 with 60
participants allocated into two groups, namely: control (pelvic muscle training) and intervention (auricular
acupuncture + pelvic muscle training). Interventions were carried out during eight weekly sessions. Generalized
estimating equations and proportion difference tests were applied in the statistical analysis with a significance
level of 0.05.
Results: Urinary incontinence severity decreased between pre-test and post-test in both groups. There was a
statistically significant difference of the impact of urinary incontinence on quality of life between the groups at
post-test in the domain “severity measures” (p = 0.013), and only in the intervention group between pre-test and
post-test in the domains “emotions” (p < 0.001) and “sleep and mood” (p = 0.008). The intervention group was
20.8% (p = 0.007) and 25.3% (p = 0.002) less likely to present nocturia and urinary urgency, respectively.
Conclusions: Auricular acupuncture combined with pelvic floor muscle training was more effective, compared to
pelvic floor muscle training alone, in reducing the impact of urinary incontinence on quality of life and reducing
the odds of nocturia and urinary urgency.
This work was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) [grant number: APQ – 01034-21], by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (Process No 311425/2020-7) and by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.