The spontaneous course of urodynamically verified sphincter lesion after surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia

Assuming that post-prostatectomy incontinence frequently resolves to various extents, forty patients selected from a background material of 105 consecutively referred patients with this complaint were reanalysed 3 to 106 months (median 55 months) after first examination. During the time interval between first examination and the revisit only 4 patients had some improvement of their incontinence. Eleven patients were evaluated urodynamically at both occasions showing no change in MUCP or other urodynamic parameters. Consequently we could not confirm the dogma that sphincter lesion due to prostate surgery may gradually resolve. Our investigation indicates a poor continence prognosis in patients incontinent after transurethral or transvesical surgery of the prostate and a more active treatment attitude. The patients should be offered an operation after evaluation of their incontinence, when a sphincter lesion is first diagnosed.