[Treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women]

Involuntary urinary leakage due to a rise in abdominal pressure caused by stress (cough, laugh, change in position, walking, running or carrying heavy weight) is a clinical entity often experienced by women. Management can be based on physical therapy techniques, drugs or surgery but indications and results to be expected are still very largely debated. Cure of an underlying condition such as obesity, or chronic bronchitis may be sufficient in some cases and others may benefit from "preventive" physical therapy to reinforce the perineum after difficult pregnancy and delivery. Alpha-stimulating drugs have also been proposed to increase sphincter tone. Surgery gives the best results. Several procedures have been proposed, usually based on classical retropubic colposuspension and aponevrosis loops. Success rate is approximately 80 to 90% although the lack of a sufficient understanding of the underlying mechanism involved, makes it impossible to predict outcome. Results in women with recurrent incontinence are less satisfactory.