Photo Credit: Pelvic floor, prolapse, pelvic organs, obgyn, flat illustration Uffoow
The following is a summary of “Correlation between clinical examination and perineal ultrasound in women treated for pelvic organ prolapse,” published in the November 2023 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology by Maheut, et al.
About 10 to 20% of women will need surgery at some point in their lives for female pelvic organ prolapse (FPOP). Most of the time, a clinical check is used to diagnose prolapse. It is easy to get a perineal ultrasound, which can be used to diagnose and stage FPOP. For a study, researchers sought to determine how well clinical testing by POP-Q and perineal sonography agree in women with pelvic organ prolapse.
The study occurred in a teaching hospital’s gynecology department from December 2015 to March 2018. It was prospective. There were two women in the group who needed surgery for pelvic organ collapse. All the women were given a clinical check using POP-Q and a perineal ultrasound to measure the depth of each compartment, the size of the levator hiatus, and the angle between the posterior perineum and the pelvic floor. Before and after surgery, they also filled out several functional surveys, such as the PFDI 20, PFIQ7, EQ-5D, and PISQ12. Spearman’s test was used to compare data from clinical and sonographic exams, and an association test was done with functional surveys.
There were 82 women there. They did not find a strong link between POP-Q and sonographic measurements of bladder collapse, the surface of the perineal gap, or the perineal posterior angle. More than half of the functional scores got a lot better after surgery. Their research does not show a link between clinical POP-Q and sonographic evaluation of bladder collapse, hiatus surface, or perineal posterior angle. Several large amounts of data needed to be included in ultrasound files, which made them weak.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468784723001174