Stress urinary incontinence in females. Diagnosis and treatment modalities – past, present and the future

Abstract

Introduction: Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) can be defined as involuntary and unintentional loss of urine through the urethra when vesical pressure exceeds the urethral sphincter pressure during instances of coughing, sneezing or physical exercise. Stress urinary incontinence is the most common form of incontinence in females with an estimated prevalence of 4.5–53% in adult women with urinary incontinence. Yet despite its distressing nature and a negative impact on quality of life, very few women present with their symptoms to a urologist. Materials and methods: A literature search of the MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Embase, NLH, ClinicalTrials.gov and Google Scholar databases was done up to November 2020, using terms related to SUI, medical therapy, surgical therapy and treatment options. The search terms included female stress urinary incontinence, mid-urethral sling, tension-free vaginal tape and trans obturator tape. The search included original articles, reviews and meta-analyses. Conclusion: Current guidelines for the management of stress urinary incontinence propose a step-ladder pattern, based on treatment invasiveness starting from conservative therapies, then drugs followed by minimally invasive procedures and culminating in invasive surgeries. The surgical approach is to be considered only after conservative therapies fail. The recent advances in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence have brought to light newer modalities and newer technologies that can be utilized which include laser therapy, stem cell therapy, intravesical balloon and others that show a lot of promise. This paper provides an in-depth analysis and reviews the literature on the current modalities and the future prospects of female stress urinary incontinence. Level of evidence: Not applicable for this review article.