Search

Background and Purpose.Low urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are a common problem during pregnancy. This study aimed to compare changes in the prevalence of LUTS during pregnancy between primiparous and multiparous women.Methods. A chart review of consecutive pregnant women who attended our antenatal clinic from March 2002 to January 2006 was performed. All of the women were asked to respond to a LUTS questionnaire in either of the three trimesters.Results.Of the 270 women included, 164 were nullipara and 106 were multipara. The most common LUTS during pregnancy were frequency (77%), followed by nocturia (75.6%), stress urinary incontinence (SUI) (51.1%), incomplete emptying (43.7%), dysuria (17.8%), and urgency incontinence (10.4%). There was a significantly higher prevalence of SUI (P<0.001) and urgency incontinence (P=0.005) in the multiparous compared to the nulliparous women. Increasing prevalence rates of frequency, nocturia, SUI, and incomplete emptying were reported with gestational age in both the nulliparous and multiparous women.Conclusions. Frequency and nocturia were the two most common LUTS during pregnancy. The prevalence rates of all LUTS increased with increasing gestational age except for frequency in the nulliparous women during the second trimester. In addition, multipara was a predictor of SUI during pregnancy. more...

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the changes in urinary symptoms and urodynamic parameters after administration of tolterodine in women with an overactive bladder (OAB). Materials and Methods: Thirty-eight women diagnosed with OAB and treated with tolterodine were reviewed. Urinalysis, pelvic examination, 3-day bladder diary, urodynamic study, and a personal interview to identify urinary symptoms prior to and 3 months after treatment were recorded and interpreted. Results: Most of our patients were menopausal (76.3%; mean age 55.7 years) and multiparous (mean parity 3.3) women. Urinary symptoms such as urinary frequency, urgency, urge incontinence, and nocturia were decreased significantly (p more...

Dear Editor, We read with great interest the article by Freeman et al. [1] and commend the authors for further investigating the efficacy of abdominal versus laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy. The study design was good and obtained important evidence of the discrepancy between two different routes. However, we feel that the text of “Patients and methods” is flawed in its description of the pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POP-Q) system [2]. The authors state: “Patients referred with symptomatic grade 2 or more post-hysterectomy vaginal vault prolapse (i.e. vaginal angles/“dimples” seen at least 1 cm above or beyond the hymeneal remnants)”. It is apparent that this statement is contradictory. It is well known that grade classification belongs to the Baden– Walker half-way system. Women with grade 2 or more vault prolapse means that their leading portions of prolapse are over the mid-plane of the vagina, while the latter sentence showing “at least 1 cm above or beyond the hymeneal remnants” should equate to stage 3 or more of the POP-Q system. Moreover, the “Inclusion criteria” showed “patients with symptomatic and bothersome vault prolapse of greater than or equal to grade 2 on the POP-Q”. I wonder about the real extent of POP in all the participants in this study. Over the last decades, the POP-Q system has gained international recognition as the “gold standard” for classifying pelvic support and a number of reports in the literature document excellent intraand inter-examiner reliability [3]. The Baden–Walker half-way system remains commonly employed in clinical practice because of its ease of use. However, it should not continue to replace the POP-Q system in scientific studies [3]. Although this is simple knowledge in POP, a number of clinical surgeons ignore it. We hope that this letter might remind reviewers or authors to take a look at the discrepancies between the two classification systems. more...