Ambulatory pessary trial unmasks occult stress urinary incontinence - Abstract

Continence Center, Urological Institute of Northeast New York and Division of Urology, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, USA.

 

We evaluated the use of a one-week ambulatory pessary trial in predicting patients' postoperative outcomes for occult stress incontinence.

Patients with anterior vaginal wall prolapse were offered a pessary trial to predict response to reconstruction. We performed a retrospective review of 4 years of cases. All patients underwent a detailed evaluation including videourodynamics with and without pessary reduction.

Twenty-six patients completed the 1-week pessary trial. Ten (38%) women showing no evidence of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) underwent surgical repair of prolapse without anti-incontinence procedure. None of these patients had SUI postoperatively. Sixteen women (61%) had occult stress urinary incontinence on evaluation and underwent concurrent sling procedure. Three (19%) of these patients were identified by the pessary trial alone. Twenty-five of the 26 patients were without clinical stress incontinence at a mean follow up of 12 months (range 4-37 months). The pessary trial correctly predicted persistent urgency in six patients and persistent frequency in five. No patients with SUI or persistent voiding difficult were missed in a pessary trial.

An ambulatory pessary trial is an effective, easy, and inexpensive method to approximate anatomic results achieved by surgery under real-life conditions. In our series, 20% of patients with occult SUI were identified by pessary trial alone.

Written by:
Chughtai B, Spettel S, Kurman J, De E.   Are you the author?

Reference: Obstet Gynecol Int. 2012;2012:392027.
doi: 10.1155/2012/392027

PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21949665

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