Efficacy of Electrofulguration for Women with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection on Quality of Life and Sexual...

The primary objective of the study was to assess the impact of EF in women with rUTI on quality of life and sexual health.

This prospective observational clinical study included 152 women who underwent EF because of rUTI and were followed for a minimum of 18 months. The SF-12 questionnaire and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) are used to evaluate quality of life and sexual dysfunction. The Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I) scale was assessed to evaluate subjective cure. Endoscopic success was defined as complete resolution of previous lesions without new lesions seen during cystoscopy. Clinical success was defined as no urinary tract infections at the last follow-up; improvement as 1-2 treated infections/year; and failure as ≥3 treated infections/year. Chi-square test, Wilcoxon, and Student's paired t test were used.

Seventy patients (52.6%) were defined as cured with at least 1-year follow-up. The subjective cure rate was 71.4% (N = 95) according to PGI-I scores. Women had significantly higher average FSFI scores (p = 0.001) in the 1-year postoperative assessment. Overall, pathological mental health and physical health scores were significantly higher after the intervention (p = 0.00). Thirty-one (23.3%) patients improved clinically with <3 infections per year, and 32 (24.1%) patients failed with >3 infections per year. A total of 97 (74.4%) patients had endoscopic resolution on postoperative evaluation.

EF resulted in clinical cure and improvement in the large majority of the patients. A significant proportion of the patients demonstrated enhanced sexual function and quality of life.