Preliminary outcome of non-ablative vaginal Erbium laser treatment for female stress and mixed urinary incontinence

Abstract

ObjectiveThis prospective study presents a preliminary result to compare the clinical efficacy of patients with stress urinary incontinence and mixed urinary incontinence using minimal invasive Er:YAG vaginal laser. Materials and methodsA total of 20 patients were included, in which were 10 patients with SUI and 10 patients with MUI (stress and urge incontinence), and underwent a 2940 nm Er:YAG laser with a special SMOOTH mode in an outpatient office without anesthesia or postoperative medications. All patients completed two sessions of treatment with an interval time of 28 days. At three months after treatment, all patients were asked to a clinical visit for evaluate the clinical outcome by pre-treatment and post-treatment ICIQ-SF questionnaire. At pretreatment and 3 months after the completion of two therapy sessions, patients were asked to answer the ICIQ-SF questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of three scales for assessment of the treatment outcome of urinary incontinence as: no change (no change score), improvement (decrease score 1–5), and strong improvement (decrease score >5) for two groups of patients with SUI and MUI. All the results were compared by Student's t test with two way analysis of variance between the two groups. ResultsA total of 20 patients presented with SUI symptom relief and improvement with treatment satisfaction. All 10 patients with SUI reported improvement after vaginal laser treatment, 70% with marked improvement and 30% with improvement. All 10 patients with MUI also had improvement, 40% with marked improvement and 60% with improvement. There was no statistically significant difference in the treatment outcome between the two groups. ConclusionsVaginal Erbium laser produce provides vaginal collagen remodeling and synthesis that may repair and restore the pelvic floor function. Despite of sample limitation and short follow up, this treating procedure presented a good and a safe clinical outcome in patients with SUI and with MUI by assessment of ICIQ-SF questionnaire.