Clinical approach to urinary incontinence: a comparison between internists and geriatricians

Physical therapy treatment in incontinent women provided by a Public Health Service

INTRODUCTION: Urinary incontinence affects more than 50 million people worldwide, it has a great impact on quality of life by affecting social, domestic, occupational and sex life, regardless of age. Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of physical therapy treatment in women attending the Urogynecology service of Hospital and Maternity Leonor Mendes de Barros. METHOD: We retrospectively assessed 65 records of patients with diagnosis of urinary incontinence treated between November 2005 and November 2006. In order to have their data analyzed, patients were divided into two groups; group MF, which underwent medical treatment and physiotherapy, and group M, which had only medical treatment. In order to compare both groups' quantitative data, the analysis was performed in Statistica® software using Mann Whitney's non-parametric test. The analysis of association between the quantitative variables was performed through the Chi-Square test at 5% (p > 0.05) significance level. RESULTS: We observed that 60.6% of patients who underwent physical therapy treatment and medical treatment had the urinary incontinence symptoms decreased or completely cured, while 80% of women belonging to the medical treatmen only-group underwent surgery. CONCLUSION: Thus, we conclude that physical therapy is essential in treatment protocols of urinary incontinence outpatient clinics and to prevent surgery.