[Urinary stress incontinence in women under 40 years of age]

To analyze the therapeutic approach in young females with stress urinary incontinence.

A retrospective study was conducted on 35 females less than 40 years of age who had undergone surgery for stress urinary incontinence. These patients had a mean follow-up of 3.5 years (range one month to 18 years) and a previous history of 3.9 years mean duration. Retropubic urethral suspension according to the MMK or Burch procedure was performed in all patients.

65.7% became completely continent, 20% were continent for at least two months, and 1.43% continued to be incontinent after surgery. The postoperative complication rate was 31%; of these complications, 4 referred inguinal pain and there were 3 cases of wound infection. Those who had a failed procedure showed no changes with respect to their preoperative urodynamic status, although two patients presented clinical features of urgency. The best surgical results were achieved in the older patients, although the differences were not statistically significant. However, statistically significant differences were found for the time to surgery; i.e., the patients with a shorter history of urinary incontinence remained incontinent after surgery.

Surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence in females less than 40 years of age achieves satisfactory results, with a success rate similar to that of the general population regardless of the age, and appears to be closely related with the period of time the patient has been incontinent before undergoing surgery.