Historical aspects of the treatment of urinary incontinence

Ancient reports on urinary incontinence are rather rare and mainly address cases of extraurethral incontinence, e.g, due to a fistula acquired during childbirth or overflow incontinence, e.g. in males with urinary retention o r after spinal cord injury. In modern times several authors dealt with the problem of postoperative incontinence after perineal lithotomy. Surgical te chniques for the cure of urinary incontinence were not introduced before th e 19th century. First this was limited to fistula repair but at the turn of the century new procedures for stress incontinence were introduced and bec ame standard clinical procedures. Other modern techniques, e,g. artificial sphincters or electrostimulation, were alternatives developed in urology du ring the second half of our century. This article from the history of medic ine outlines early reports on urinary incontinence and reveals a more detai led review of the different treatment options including conservative therap ies, incontinence devices, electrotherapy and surgical procedures, includin g injection therapies and artificial sphincters, Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karg er AG. Basel.