[Anamnestic and urometric classification of 185 cases of urinary incontinence]

Standard interviews were obtained from 185 women with urinary incontinence over three years to collect information about their individual complaints. All probands then were urometrically examined. The selection had been by negative criteria, as 40.5 per cent of the women had undergone one or several unsuccessful operations earlier in the past. Information based on case histories was grouped by three categories of complaint; only stress symptoms (n = 66), stress and urge symptoms (n = 116), only urge symptoms (n = 3). The following findings were obtained, in terms of ICS classification, by urometric diagnosis: stress incontinence due to urethral insufficiency (n = 51), stress incontinence with accompanying urge component (n = 72), sensorial urge incontinence (n = 26), motor urge incontinence (n = 16), overflow incontinence (n = 7), no urometric findings (n = 13). Sizeable variation was found to exist by comparison between complaint groups on the basis of case history and groups based on urometric classification. Such discrepancy applied primarily to the grey area of combined stress-urge symptoms from which the majority of bladder-dependent incontinence forms was recorded. Yet, pure stress incontinence, too, signalized genuine urethral insufficiency only in 51 of 66 cases. Hence, even detailed case history can provide only limited information for proper diagnosis.