[New radiologico-clinical classification of changes in stress incontinence in women]

Setting forth their experience in over 800 colpocystographies applied in genital prolapse and stress incontinence, the authors propose an original classification of changes in urinary stress incontinence with a view to unifying clinical and radiological findings. Along with classical, wellknown radiological aspects (urethral vesicalization and the prolapse of the urinary bladder) one new type of changes is described. It is named the slipping prolapse of the urinary bladder and is determined by the deterioration of the urethro-vaginal septum leading to a completely isolated dislocation of the lower urinary organs and the frontal vaginal wall. The combination of these aspects gives the three types and six variants of stress incontinence which, from the clinical point of view, may be manifest, masked, and potential. The pathogenesis of different types of the disease is analysed, as well as the principles of their therapy. The authors plead for the widest possible use of colpocystography in the preoperative preparation on patients, especially in relapses, since the method is simple and harmless, yielding extremely useful informations in the study of the morphotopography of pelvic organs.