Urinary Incontinence in Women

Choi, Jong Bo

Abstract

The International Continence Society (ICS) defines urinary incontinence (UI) as the complaint of any involuntary leakage of urine. The common pathophysiology of UI in women involves an overactive detrusor or an incompetent urethral sphincter. Therefore UI is categorized as stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge urinary incontinence (UUI), mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) and overflow incontinence. SUI and UUI are the two most common types of UI in women. According to Korean national survey in 2005, the prevalence of UI is 24.4% and the prevalence of UI increased with age. Of those women, 48.8% reported SUI, 7.7% UUI, 41.6% mixed UI. Therefore the proper diagnostic work-up is needed to increase clinical outcome because many treatment options are being in women with UI. Non-invasive treatments include behavioral therapy, pharmacotherapy. Especially anticholinergics are the cornerstone of UUI treatment, whereas surgical treatments, such as TOT, TVT, are considered as a gold standard of SUI treatment. The cure rate of TOT or TVT surgery for SUI revealed 80-90% according to many studies and complication rate is reported about 5%. Therefore, by effectively identifying and treating incontinence it is possible to significantly improve patients' quality of life.