Modern aspects of the fascial structure of the pelvic floor (literature review)

The pelvic floor fascia in women has attracted the attention of obstetricians-gynecologists, proctologists and rehabilitologists due to their possible role in the development of pelvic organ prolapse and the appearance of pelvic pain. The development and improvement of new surgical techniques entails a comprehensive study of previously known approaches. For instance, regarding fascial tissues, studying the actual use of fascial flaps in plastic and reconstructive surgeries is of particular interest. This necessitates an accurate definition of and knowledge about structure of the fascia and their variations. In addition, knowledge of the fascial structure of surgical methods for treating prolapse, such as the installation of mesh prostheses in the reconstruction of the pelvic floor in the absence of alternative methods of correction. Primarily postoperative pain, a more in-depth study of the fascial anatomy of the pelvic floor can help reduce these adverse outcomes. The morphological and physiological characteristics of the perineal fascia presented in the teaching materials and teaching aids are not descriptive in nature and are far from the descriptive practice of obstetricians-gynecologists in the selection of methods for surgical correction of genital prolapse. This work is a literature review compiled from the sources of the electronic national bibliographic database of scientific citation of the Russian Science Citation Index and the English-language text database of medical and biological publications PubMed, created by the National Center for Biotechnological Information of the USA. To search for data, such key queries as “fascia”, “pelvic floor”, “pelvic floor anatomy”, “genitourinary diaphragm”, “chronic pelvic pain” were used, both individually and collectively.