THE OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT OF URINARY-INCONTINENCE IN CHILDREN

Objective To assess urinary incontinence objectively in children, Pati ents and methods Thirty-three children (mean age 8.2 years, range 5-12 ) were examined, of whom 23 suffered from incontinence and 10 did not. The first method of assessing incontinence was the 1-h pad-weighing t est proposed by the International Continence Society in 1983 and the s econd was a test in which the pad was weighed between one urination an d the next. At the end of the tests the volume of normally voided urin e was measured and the total voided volume during the test calculated. The volume of urine lost during incontinence and the ratio [incontine nce volume/(incontinence volume + voided volume)] were evaluated; the ratio was used because the bladder capacity in children differed with age. Results In both tests, no wetting occurred in any of the 10 patie nts not complaining of incontinence, In the 1-h pad-weighing test, no wetting occurred in 14 of the 23 patients complaining of incontinence but did in the nine remaining patients, the loss being 1-30 g, and the incontinence ratio 0.5-14.8%. In the second test, no wetting occurred in 12 of the 23 patients complaining of incontinence but did so in th e 11 remaining patients, with losses of 2-50 g and incontinence ratios of 1.5-80.6%. Conclusions There was no significant difference between the tests in the incidence of incontinence. However, the second metho d seemed to be more closely related to the clinical symptoms than was the 1-h pad-weighing test and may be useful in the assessment of incon tinence in children.