Quality of life assessment in patients who undergo sacral neuromodulation implantation for urge incontinence: An additional tool for evaluating outcome

Purpose: We investigated the impact of sacral neuromodulation on quality of life and assessed the importance of quality of life for determining the su ccess of sacral neuromodulation in patients with detrusor hyperactivity, in cluding instability and hyperreflexia. We also compared it with parameters documented in a voiding diary. Materials and Methods: From May 1998 to December 20010, 82 female and 31 ma le patients 17 to 79 years old (mean age 51.1) with urge incontinence (63), urgency/frequency (5), voiding disturbance (41) and pelvic pain (4) resist ant to conservative treatment were enrolled in a national prospective regis try after showing a positive response to percutaneous nerve evaluation test ing. Of the patients 47 who were 32 to 79 years old (mean age 59.2) with ur ge incontinence due to detrusor instability and 16 who were 27 to 51 years old (mean age 51.5) with hyperreflexia were asked to complete a validated s elf-reporting incontinence domain specific quality of life questionnaire be fore, and 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months after implantation. Results: Compared with baseline the quality of life index significantly imp roved at each followup, which strongly correlated with the decrease in the number of incontinence episodes. Conclusions: Evaluating quality of life may be an additional useful tool fo r assessing the results of sacral neuromodulation for urge incontinence. Ou r study confirms that sacral neuromodulation is effective therapy for urge incontinence that can have a positive effect on patient quality of life.