The prognostic value of voiding chart data in therapy-resistant enuresis

The case history is the primary tool when investigating the enuretic child. To further determine whether nocturnal polyuria or detrusor overactivity is present, a full voiding chart, is the method of choice. However, there is no robust evidence that daytime voiding chart data actually do predict nocturnal detrusor function.

The aim of this study was to assess the predictive value of anamnestic data and the voiding chart in the treatment of children with therapy-resistant enuresis.

The patients all suffered from enuresis resistant to first-line therapy. None of the children had daytime incontinence. In accordance with international recommendations, the children were first treated with anticholinergics. If the therapeutic effect was not satisfactory dosage was adjusted and desmopressin was added. If sufficient treatment effect was not achieved, antidepressant therapy was tried next, combined with desmopressin if needed. Since this was an evaluation of clinical practice, not a randomized trial, treatment success was graded according to family satisfaction, not the actual frequency of wet nights. Thus, only children who reported that they were completely dry were regarded as full responders and those who stated that there was a substantial and useful reduction of wet nights were labeled intermediate responders.

In total, 154 patients were included. Few and inconsistent differences were found between the groups responding or not responding to the various treatment regimens, and this was true both for anamnestic and voiding chart data (see Table). The only statistically significant findings were that responders to antidepressant therapy were older (p = 0.013) than non-responders, and patients who benefited from addition of desmopressin had a higher micturition frequency than those who did not (p = 0.027). The children who needed desmopressin as part of combination treatment to become dry did not have significantly higher nocturnal urine production than those who had no such benefit (p = 0.619). Neither the presence of urgency nor a history of previous daytime incontinence was significantly more common in children responding to anticholinergics (p = 0.375 and 0.072, respectively).

No clear and consistent differences in either anamnestic factors or voiding chart data were found between the patients responding or not responding to the various treatment regimens. Not even urgency could predict anticholinergic efficacy. Somewhat surprisingly, no association between nocturnal polyuria and desmopressin benefit was found.

In this study no prognostic value was found in anamnestic or voiding chart data in children with therapy resistant enuresis.