Urinary Incontinence: evidence on conservative management

Abstract

Urinary incontinence in women is a condition of high incidence and is associated with an impact on quality of life. Conservative treatment modalities are an important resource in the management of this condition, since they can be prescribed based on the clinical diagnosis without the need for additional tests. The present study aims to gather current evidence on conservative treatment modalities available for female incontinence published in the last 5 years. Conducting the search in the Medline and LILACS databases, 28 articles were identified, categorized with level of evidence 1b and 2b by the Oxford classification, which present original results on physical therapy, medication and behavioral modalities in the non-community treatment of female incontinence. The current state of the art demonstrates a domain of studies with a high degree of evidence involving the treatment modalities associated with the physical therapy practice of pelvic floor muscle training. Evidence from 5 analyzed studies statistically demonstrated the superiority of this method in relation to control groups, or to groups submitted to other interventions. Positive evidence related to transcutaneous electrical stimulation therapies, intravaginal electrical stimulation, duloxetine, noradrenaline receptor inhibitors, continence pessaries, and lifestyle changes was also observed.