Classification of descent and mobility of urethrovesic junction in women with stress urinary incontinence - an ultrasound study.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Detect urethrovesical junction descent and mobility values in women with stress incontinence prior to surgical treatment. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTINGS Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, First Medical Faculty, Charles University, General Teaching Hospital, Prague. METHODS: A retrospective study included 568 patients from three different prospective studies. We have ultrasound data in 560 of them. All of these patients underwent surgical treatment of stress incontinence. During the preoperative examination, patients were subjected to clinical, urodynamic and ultrasound examinations, in which we focused on the urethrovesical junction descent and mobility rate in the maximal Valsavs maneuver. Statistical evaluation of the data was performed by a pair t-test or Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: The mean dorsocaudal descent of the urethrovesical junction was 20.6 mm (SD 8.2, first quantile 14.9, third quantile 25.6 mm). We did not find any statistically significant differences in the acquired parameters at different time periods. CONCLUSION: Due to the high variability of urethrovesical junction descent and mobility, ultrasound examination should be part of all urogynecological preoperative examinations to provide the operator with information on urethrovesical junction descent and mobility prior to surgery and then compare it with postoperative results.