MAXIMAL EXTERNAL ELECTRICAL-STIMULATION FOR TREATMENT OF NEUROGENIC OR NON-NEUROGENIC URGENCY AND OR URGE INCONTINENCE/

Maximal electrical stimulation by intravaginal or intra-anal electrode s was used for treatment of 75 patients with complaints of urgency and /or urge incontinence. The patient group consisted of 51 women and 24 men. A neurogenic background was present in 30 of the women who had a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, in the other 45 patients the patholog y was idiopathic in nature. After 3 weeks of maximal electrical stimul ation treatment, composed of 15 sessions of 20 minutes duration, 59% o f the patients had urodynamic and subjective improvement and an additi onal 40% only subjective improvement. One patient found no benefit aft er this treatment. The effect lasted for at least 2 years in 64% of th e idiopathic group. In the multiple sclerosis group relapse occurred w ithin about 2 months. Re-treatment of the failures was successful agai n immediately; the multiple sclerosis patients do need daily home stim ulation treatments. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.