Ureteral Ectopia and Urinary Incontinence

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI) is defined as the inability to retain voluntary control over urination. It is a common presenting clinical sign in dogs and occurs with less frequency in cats. Treatment of UI can be frustrating, with some common disease processes, such as urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence (USMI) and ureteral ectopia, being associated with relatively high treatment failure rates after both medical and surgical management. The most common cause of UI in dogs is USMI, which has sometimes been termed “hormone-responsive incontinence” or “postspaying” incontinence in female dogs. Ectopic ureters develop due to a defect in the embryologic development of the metanephric duct, which becomes the ureter later in development. Neurogenic incontinence is common after spinal cord injury and less common in animals with brain lesions. Urethral pressure profilometry can be a very useful diagnostic tool in the evaluation of a variety of causes of UI in dogs and has also been investigated in cats.