Correlation of Contraction Strength between Gastrocnemius Soleus Muscle and Levator Ani Muscle among Individuals with Uterine Prolapse

Ab s t r Ac t Introduction: Elderly or menopause is one of the uterine prolapses’ predisposition; however, not every patients with the menopause suffer from uterine prolapses. It is presumed that it is caused by differences of levator ani muscle strength between patients with and without uterine prolapses. Weak levator ani contraction strength is an initial predisposition of uterine prolapses’ occurrence; thus, researchers assumed that there is an overall skeletal muscle strength weakness among patients with uterine prolapses. The overall skeletal muscle strength was represented by the gastrocnemius soleus muscle. Materials and methods: This study aimed to compare gastrocnemius soleus contraction strength between women with and without an uterine prolapse. This study is a comparative, observational analytic study with a cross-sectional approach. Results: The subjects of this study were 48 women divided into two groups: (i) menopause women with a pelvic organ prolapse and (ii) those without a pelvic organ prolapse. Measurements were done on pelvic floor muscle contraction strength (PeritronTM perineometer) and gastrocnemius soleus muscle contraction strength (hand-held dynamometer). Discussion: This study was conducted at Dr Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung during September–October 2016. Statistical analysis reported that the p value results on a perinometer and a hand-held dynamometer were below 0.05 (p value < 0.05) for both groups. A correlation coefficient (r) of 0.519 was classified as the moderate category, with significant correlation results due to a p value of 0.001, α < 0.05. It is concluded that there was a significant correlation between levator ani and gastrocnemius soleus muscle contraction strength among post-menopause uterine prolapse patiets. Conclusion: Gastrocnemius soleus skeletal muscle contraction strength among women with POP was lesser compared with women without POP, and there was a correlation between pelvic floor muscle contraction strength and gastrocnemius soleus skeletal muscle contraction strength.