Despite significant differences in success rates between surgical and non-surgical treatments for female stress urinary incontinence (SUI), a few cross-sectional surveys reviewed that most patients still prefer the latter. We evaluated the efficacy of the under-studied non-surgical treatment using pulsed magnetic stimulation (PMS) in female SUI.
This randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study involved 120 female SUI subjects aged at least 21 years old. Treatment involved PMS, 2 sessions per week for 2 months (16 sessions). After 2 months, subjects could opt for 16 additional sessions regardless of initial randomization. The primary response criterion was a 5-point reduction in International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire for Urinary Incontinence-Short Form (ICIQ-UI SF). Key secondary response criteria included objective and subjective cure, supplemented by other secondary criteria. Follow-ups were conducted at months-1, 2, 5, 8 and 14.
At 2 months, 45 of 60 subjects (75%) in the active versus 13 of 60 subjects (21.7%) in the sham arms were treatment responders (p<0.001). After 2 months, 24 (40%) subjects from the active and 41 (68%) from the sham arms opted for additional active PMS. At 14 months, subjects who received 32 sessions of active PMS had the highest percentage of treatment responders (n=18/24, 75.0%), followed by those who received 16 sessions (n=26/36, 72.2% and n=28/41, 68.3%) and those who did not receive any active PMS (n=4/19, 21.1%) (p<0.001).
The encouraging long-term response rates show that PMS is an attractive non-surgical alternative to patients who do not want to undergo surgery.
The Journal of urology. 2016 Jan 18 [Epub ahead of print]
Renly Lim, Men Long Liong, Wing Seng Leong, Nurzalina Abdul Karim Khan, Kah Hay Yuen
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia; School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. Electronic address: ., Department of Urology, Island Hospital, Penang, Malaysia., Department of Urology, Lam Wah Ee Hospital, Penang, Malaysia., School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.