The “bother” of urinary incontinence

Sensation of incomplete bladder emptying in women: Lack of correlation to an elevated post-void residual

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND

Sensation of incomplete bladder emptying (SIBE) has been shown to be correlated with an elevated post-void residual (PVR) in men, however, the significance of this symptom and whether it correlates with an elevated PVR in women is less clear. In this study, we assessed if SIBE in women is correlated with an elevated PVR and determined the relationship of SIBE to other lower urinary tract symptoms.

METHODS/MATERIALS

Women ages ≥18 with lower urinary tract symptoms were eligible. SIBE was defined by a response "sometimes", "most of the time", or "all of the time" to the question "How often do you feel that your bladder has not emptied properly after you have urinated?" on the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire. Frequency and bother of other lower urinary tract symptoms were also assessed to compare their relationship to SIBE. Elevated PVR was defined as ≥100 ml via ultrasound.

RESULTS

We prospectively evaluated 95 women, 59% of whom reported SIBE. Compared to women without SIBE, women with SIBE reported more urinary hesitancy (51% vs. 18%, p = 0.002), intermittency (56% vs. 16%, p < 0.001), weak stream (36% vs. 5%, p < 0.001), dysuria (29% vs. 5%, p = 0.004), and straining (25% vs 5%, p = 0.013). However, there was no difference in elevated PVRs between women with and without SIBE [5/56, 9% vs. 4/39, 10%, (p = 0.99)]. All women, regardless of SIBE, reported higher bother from storage and incontinence symptoms versus voiding symptoms with no difference in overall bother scores.

CONCLUSION

SIBE is a common complaint in women with lower urinary tract symptoms. While women with SIBE reported more voiding symptoms, they were more bothered by storage symptoms. Importantly, most of these women emptied their bladder well and were not more likely to have an elevated PVR than women without SIBE.

Will future doctors know enough about stress urinary incontinence to provide proper preventive measures and treatment?

Background: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is an embarrassing condition, which is one of the last taboos in modern medicine. The study aim was an attempt to assess medical students' knowledge of female stress urinary incontinence.Methods: The study involved 432 students of the Medical Department at the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. Participants answered open-ended questions about: risk factors, prevention, diagnostic tests, conservative and surgical treatment in stress urinary incontinence.Results: The obtained results indicated that female students know more about SUI than male students. Women - more often than men - could provide the definition of SUI (p < 0.01); additionally, they more frequently indicated prevention methods (p < 0.01), diagnostic testing (p < 0.001) and conservative methods of treatment (p < 0.001). Not all the respondents were able to properly define stress urinary incontinence. Risk factors were known to most of the respondents but only half of them were aware of surgical treatment and prevention methods. Even fewer answered questions about conservative treatment and diagnostic tests correctly.Conclusions: We conclude that the knowledge of medical undergraduates who took part in the survey was not satisfactory. Most of the students were able to define properly the disease and point out risk factors. However, several steps should be taken to make stress urinary incontinence a disease much more known to medical students.Abbreviations: SUI: Stress urinary incontinence; Group F: Females Group; Group M: Males Group; TVT: Tension Free Vaginal Tape; TOT: Transobturator Tape.

Does Patient Posture Affect the Ultrasound Evaluation of Pelvic Organ Prolapse?

OBJECTIVES

Translabial ultrasound (US) imaging is an emerging method for the evaluation of pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Normative data to date are limited to imaging in the supine position. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of posture changes on US pelvic organ mobility.

METHODS

This work was a retrospective study of 175 women seen in a tertiary urogynecologic center for symptoms of lower urinary tract and pelvic floor dysfunction. All underwent a standardized interview, POP quantification prolapse assessment, and 4-dimensional translabial US examination in supine and standing positions. Offline measurement of organ descent on the Valsalva maneuver was undertaken at a later date and was blinded against all other data.

RESULTS

The mean age was 58 (SD, 13.5; range, 17 to 89) years, with a mean body mass index of 29 (SD, 6.1; range, 18 to 53) kg/m² . In total, 58.9% (n = 103) presented with symptoms of prolapse. Clinically, 82.8% (n = 145) had substantial prolapse on the POP quantification assessment. On imaging, bladder, uterine, and rectal ampulla positions were significantly lower, and the hiatal area on the Valsalva maneuver was larger in the standing position (P < .03). On receiver operating characteristic statistics assessing correlations between POP symptoms and US pelvic organ descent, the area under the curve was higher in the standing position, but the difference was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS

Measurements of organ descent and hiatal dimensions are generally higher in the standing position. However, they are not reflected in a stronger association between symptoms and organ descent. Hence, imaging in the standing position can be limited to those patients in whom a false-negative assessment result is suspected.

The 'bother' of obstructed defecation

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relationship of visual analog scale (VAS) 'bother' scores for obstructed defecation (OD) with demographic data, physical examination and sonographic findings of the posterior compartment.

METHODS

All patients seen at a urogynecology clinic between January and October 2013 were included. Patients were diagnosed with OD if they had any of the following: incomplete bowel emptying, straining with bowel movement or need for digitation. Patients used a VAS to rate OD bother on a scale of 0-10 (0, no bother; 10, worst imaginable bother). For each patient, a comprehensive history was obtained, the International Continence Society Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification was performed and four-dimensional translabial ultrasound volumes were recorded on maximal Valsalva maneuver. Linear and multiple regression models were used to correlate bother VAS scores with demographic, clinical and sonographic findings.

RESULTS

Among 265 patients included in the analysis, 61% had OD symptoms with a mean VAS bother score of 5.6. OD bother scores were associated with a history of previous prolapse surgery (P = 0.0001), previous hysterectomy (P = 0.0006), descent of the posterior compartment (Bp; P = 0.004) and hiatal dimensions (Pb and Gh + Pb; P = 0.006 and P = 0.004). OD bother was associated with the following sonographic findings: true rectocele (P = 0.01), depth of rectocele (P = 0.04), descent of rectal ampulla (P = 0.02), enterocele (P = 0.03) and rectal intussusception (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS

VAS bother scores are associated with both clinical and sonographic measures of posterior compartment descent. Rectal intussusception was most likely to result in highly bothersome symptoms of OD. Copyright © 2015 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The bother of anal incontinence and St. Mark's Incontinence Score

BACKGROUND

Patient self-report is important in the assessment of the impact of anal incontinence (AI) on quality of life. This study aimed to (1) determine the correlation between total St. Mark's Incontinence Score (SMIS) and a single-item visual analogue scale (VAS) for bother from AI, and (2) determine the correlation between individual components of SMIS and VAS.

METHODS

This is a retrospective study conducted on a cohort of 516 women seen for symptoms of lower urinary tract and pelvic floor dysfunction between January 2013 and August 2014. If a woman responded "yes" to the question "Do you experience any leakage from the back passage/anus?" they were considered to have AI, and the SMIS was administered. They were also asked "How much are you bothered by these symptoms?" to assess bother from AI by VAS. Statistical analyses were performed using Spearman's correlation and Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTS

Eighty-four (16.3 %) women reported AI with a mean SMIS of 11 (SD ± 5.11, range 2-24) and median bother of 5 (VAS 1-10). There was a fair correlation between VAS for the bother from AI and SMIS (Spearman's r = 0.523, p < 0.001). Fecal urgency, impact on lifestyle, and use of pad/plug were significantly associated with VAS (p = 0.05, p = 0.002 and p < 0.001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

There is a fair, positive correlation between VAS for bother from AI and SMIS. Patients' bother from AI is strongly associated with its impact on lifestyle as quantified by individual SMIS components.