Functional electrical stimulation in the management of incontinence: studies of urodynamics

Intermittent functional electrical stimulation (FES) was employed for the control of incontinence. One FES session lasted for 30 minutes. It was repeated at intervals of 3 days to 1 week via an anal plug electrode. The success rate was 64% in 41 patients with pollakiuria, urgency and/or urge incontinence, and 43% in 7 patients with stress incontinence. Detrusor activity measured by cystometry did not correlate significantly with the effect on subjective symptoms and the urethral pressure did not increase. The remarkable clinical effect was observed in patients with overactive detrusor function. It seems that FES indirectly inhibits detrusor contraction by suppressing the intrasacral pathway for detrusor activity.