Grant: Operating Grant

Urinary incontinence (UI) affects up to 50% of adult populations and stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is the most common form of UI, accounting for approximately 60% of patients. Women are affected by SUI much more often than men. Urine leakage in women with SUI occurs on exertion or during tasks that increase pressure on the bladder such as sneezing or coughing. SUI has been shown to be a barrier to physical activity in women, and as such can contribute to the development of diseases and disorders associated with inactivity. SUI appears to have many contributing factors such as structural damage (eg. tears in the pelvic organ supporting tissues), muscle weakness related to nerve injury or aging, or thinning of the urethral wall and/or its surrounding muscular sphincters. Currently the most common treatments for SUI are conservative therapy, which normally takes the form of exercise therapy provided by specialized nurses or physical therapists, and surgery, which is aimed at enhancing urethral support. Exercise therapy is effective, resulting in complete cure in 50% of cases, and surgery is effective for approximately 80% of patients but carries risks such as the development of urinary retention. It is currently not clear which treatment approach is better for which women. Through the proposed research, we aim to determine how to predict which patients will improve or be cured with exercise therapy such that surgery can be avoided. Specifically we will determine what is different between patients in whom exercise therapy succeeds and in whom exercise therapy fails. We will also determine whether physiotherapist-supervised training of the pelvic floor muscles before surgery improves surgical outcomes. The proposed research will enable us to better understand the female continence system and how it responds to physiotherapeutic intervention. It will help us to develop improved assessment procedures that can streamline patient management.