[Urinary incontinence in the elderly: distinctive feature and management]

Urinary incontinence is very common among the elderly and results in a series of personal and economic complications. This population is often very heterogeneous with the aetiologies or dependences which are not very obvious. It is thus important to carry out among these patients a total assessment which will make it possible to detect the affections or the dependence from which it suffers. The BGMST (Belgian Geriatric Minimum Screening Test) includes a series of non aggressive tests which will answer this need. The performance of urodynamic tests is not easily achieved in case of not very autonomous or intellectually little collaborating patients. The prescription of surgical treatments is not necessarily to reject (urge incontinence). With regard to drugs, a good knowledge of their metabolism, of their interferences with other treatments in progress, is important especially in the absence of literature taking into account this heterogeneous old population. The prescriptions must be regularly re-examined in order to avoid weakening of these patients. In addition, in the elderly, aetiologies of incontinence are often multiple and consequently its daily management becomes particularly difficult.