[Intravaginal ultrasonography in the diagnosis of stress urinary incontinence]

This analyzes the usefulness of transvaginal endosonography before and after surgery in patients with stress urinary incontinence.

We evaluated the bladder contour in 50 patients by transvaginal endosonography and the distance from the bladder neck to the pubis was measured with and without stress. If the distance was greater than 1 cm, it was presumed that the patient had stress urinary incontinence.

In these 50 patients, the distance between the bladder neck and the pubis without stress ranged from 15 mm to 28 mm (mean 32 mm). In 47 patients (94%), we observed a displacement of the bladder base and neck to the pubis greater than 1 cm, indicating stress urinary incontinence. Transvaginal endosonography was performed four weeks later and proved to be useful in patient evaluation postoperatively, regardless of the surgical technique utilized.

Transvaginal endosonography is a useful in the preoperative evaluation of patients with stress urinary incontinence and in evaluating the results of colposuspension.