Prevalence of anal incontinence in 409 patients investigated for stress urinary incontinence

A clinical questionnaire concerning anorectal symptoms and urodynamic tests was used to investigate 409 women consulting for stress urinary incontinen ce. To compare urodynamic data, patients were divided into three goups of w omen who had either stress urinary incontinence associated with incontinenc e for formed and/or liquid stools or with gas incontinence, or isolated str ess urinary incontinence. To take in account the patients' age for data int erpretation, a Mantel-Haenszel test or covariate analysis was performed. An al incontinence was reported in 114 (28%) of the 409 women investigated. Th e prevalence of incontinence for gas only, for liquid, or for solid stools was 18.3, 9.3, and 1%, respectively. The duration of gas incontinence was l onger than that of fecal incontinence or stress urinary incontinence. Diffi cult defecation was more frequently observed in patients with double incont inence than in patients with only stress urinary incontinence, and the diff erence was significant between patients with gas incontinence and patients with stress urinary incontinence (53% versus 37%, P = 0.03). There was no d ifference in the number of bowel movements per week among the three groups of patients. The number of vaginal deliveries was surprisingly lower in pat ients with fecal incontinence associated with urinary incontinence than in others. There was no urodynamic feature that could distinguish patients wit h urinary incontinence and patients with double incontinence. This study co nfirmed the close relationship between anal and stress urinary incontinence . (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss,Inc.