Weighted Vaginal Cones Versus Biofeedback in the Treatment of Urodynamic Stress Incontinence: a Randomized Trial.

Background and Rationale Urinary incontinence is a widespread and debilitating medical problem, with an estimated prevalence of between 17-45% in adult women. Genuine stress incontinence is the most common form of urinary incontinence in women, with objective diagnosis made via urodynamics. Urinary continence is maintained when the urethral resistance (pressure) is greater than the intravesical pressure. Genuine stress incontinence occurs when pressure transmission to the urethra is compromised by poor anatomic support of the proximal urethra resulting from weakened pelvic floor musculature and/or defective endopelvic fascia. While the gold standard for treatment of genuine stress incontinence is still considered to be surgical, there is renewed interest among both patients and surgeons for nonsurgical (conservative) management. The goal of conservative therapy is to restrengthen and retrain the pelvic floor muscles to improve urethral pressure transmission and thus improve the continence mechanism.

Nonsurgical therapies include PFME with or without biofeedback, and weighted vaginal cones. PFME with biofeedback are widely accepted as an effective conservative treatment for genuine stress incontinence, with subjective cure rates estimated to be as high as 70 percent. However, to date, objective cure rates as defined by urodynamics have not been well documented. Similarly, while limited studies suggest that vaginal cone therapy results in a subjective cure rate of 60%, objective cure rates still have not been determined. With growing clinic and surgical waiting lists and rising hospital costs, weighted vaginal cones, if objectively proven to be a comparably effective alternative to physiotherapy, will offer an effective management option for stress incontinence, thus, perhaps avoiding referral to a tertiary hospital for physiotherapy, and surgery.

We hypothesize that following a minimum of six months of treatment, weighted vaginal cones would be as effective as a formal supervised program of pelvic floor physiotherapy with biofeedback for the treatment of uncomplicated genuine stress urinary incontinence in females. We are thus seeking to evaluate the feasibility of a randomized clinical trial.

Method

An estimated 60 women identified from ambulatory clinics with multichannel urodynamics documenting genuine stress urinary incontinence will be needed to participate in this single-blind, randomized pilot study. Once entered, patients will be randomized to receive one of two different nonsurgical treatments: PFME with biofeedback or weighted vaginal cones. The patients will chart compliance to treatment for the duration of the study. A quality of life questionnaire will be completed at the beginning and end of the trial, along with a subjective assessment of incontinence severity via a standardized questionnaire. The study period will be six months. Upon completion of the study, patients will undergo repeat multichannel urodynamics and perineal pad testing to determine if genuine stress incontinence is present or absent and thus whether objective cure has been achieved. Results will be analyzed and compared statistically.