[The vaginal route in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence]

Female stress incontinence can always be treated by a transvaginal approach. It is often associated with genital prolapse which must be treated at the same time as the incontinence. Patients can be classified into 4 groups according to the position of the bladder neck, the degree of sphincter function and the associated genital prolapse. Operative techniques designed to simultaneously control incontinence and genital prolapse are indicated for each of these groups. Urologists should be just as familiar with the transvaginal treatment of female stress incontinence and disorders of pelvic tone as gynaecologists now are with urodynamics and cystoscopy.