Is Urodynamic Evaluation Necessary for Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence?

Yun, Hyun Chul; Lee, Jeong Gu

Abstract

PURPOSE: The presence of urge incontinence may affect the results of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) treatment. In this study, women with SUI were divided according to their accompaniment with urge incontinence or not. The aim was to define a group in whom a urodynamic assessment was unnecessary prior to offering surgery. In other words, we wished to define a group where the treatment plan could be determined only with the clinical opinions based on the symptoms and physical examinations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Two hundred and fifty five women with SUI between January 1997 and February 2001 were enrolled in this study. The women with SUI symptoms were divided into a group of patients who had symptoms of pure SUI, and those who had SUI as well as urge incontinence. The clinical and urodynamic variables were analyzed to identify the sub-groups of women where a urodynamic study was unnecessary before initiating treatment for SUI.
RESULTS
Of the 101 women with symptoms of pure SUI, only 5 had a detrusor instability (DI). Of the 154 women with coexisting urge incontinence symptoms, only 33.8% (52/154) had DI, suggesting the poor predictability of urge incontinence symptoms for a diagnosis of DI based on the urodynamic study. An identification of SUI by the urodynamics were noted in 77.6% (198/255), which almost corresponding to the rate (76.9%) of positive urine leakage confirmed at the provocative stress test.
CONCLUSIONS
If a patient has symptoms of pure SUI associated with a positive stress test, the SUI can be treated without a urodynamic study. For women with symptoms of mixed urinary incontinence, it may be better to undergo a urodynamic study before launching a definitive treatment.