Embarrassment and the stress urinary incontinence (SUI) sufferers’ inability to make a  connection between its symptoms and their source may inhibit many women from seeking treatment. But just as patient education efforts are spurring women to seek help, practitioners are now assessing novel therapies for its management and re-evaluating optimized surgical interventions that utilize next-generation biomaterials.

Beginning with a recap of the AUA’s recently released SUI treatment guidelines, ModernMedicine presents this SUI update which highlights a straightforward 3-question survey to distinguish between stress and urge incontinence, innovative interventional approaches and the role of synthetics in enhancing surgical outcomes, and new data evaluating the efficacy of behavioral therapy. Finally, we cite recent data on the improved quality of life measures achieved upon disorder resolution.

AUA SUI guideline: Counsel patients, set expectations prior to treatment
A complete evaluation, including an assessment of postvoid residual volume, is key when evaluating a woman for surgery to treat stress urinary incontinence (SUI), according to a new clinical practice guideline released by AUA.

Three questions can identify type of incontinence
Three simple questions can enable practitioners to distinguish between urge and stress incontinence in women, obviating the need for extensive evaluation, according to a one study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Surgery for incontinence: The pendulum has swung
Over the course of a decade, the therapeutic pendulum in treating urinary incontinence in women swung dramatically from needle suspension and anterior urethropexy to collagen injections and back again to suspension procedures with no sound clinical trials driving the move toward either approach.

Single-incision sling shows positive 1-year results for treatment of stress urinary incontinence
A proprietary single-incision mid-urethral sling kit shows positive objective and subjective efficacy outcomes and an acceptable safety profile after 1 year in women with stress urinary incontinence.

Study: Adjustable Continence Therapy device safe treatment method for stress urinary incontinence
An adjustable urethral prosthesis provides a safe and effective method for treating women with stress urinary incontinence resulting from intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD), according to long-term study results presented at the European Association of Urology annual congress.

Stress urinary incontinence treatment evolves with growth of synthetics
In this interview, Gopal H. Badlani, MD, discusses the shift to mid-urethral sling placement, the growth of synthetic graft materials, and the reasons for these changes in the management of female stress urinary incontinence.

Procedure significantly improves urinary incontinence
A transobturator tape procedure resulted in complete resolution of stress urinary incontinence in 77% of treated patients, according to research published in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Behavioral therapy for stress incontinence evaluated
Behavioral therapy is likely more effective than a pessary in reducing stress incontinence in the short term, according to a study in the March issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Obese women can add reduced incontinence to benefits of weight loss
Behavioral weight-loss programs can be effective for reducing urinary incontinence in women who are overweight or obese, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Sexual function improves after stress urge incontinence surgery
Sexual function improves in women after successful surgery for stress urinary incontinence whether they undergo a sling procedure or Burch colposuspension.