Vaginal delivery compared with elective caesarean section: the views of pregnant women and clinicians.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the risk of morbidity from vaginal delivery (VD) that pregnant women would be prepared to accept before requesting an elective caesarean section and to compare these views with those of clinicians. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Major teaching hospital (nulliparas and midwives) and national samples of medical specialists. SAMPLE: Nulliparas (n = 122), midwives (n = 84), obstetricians (n = 166), urogynaecologists (n = 12) and colorectal surgeons (n = 79). METHODS: Face-to-face interviews (nulliparas) and mailed questionnaire (clinicians). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Maximum level of risk participants would be prepared to accept before opting for an elective caesarean section for each of 17 potential complications of VD. Utility scores for each complication were calculated with higher scores (closer to 1) indicating a greater acceptance of risk. RESULTS: Pregnant women were willing to accept higher risks than clinicians for all 17 potential complications. They were least accepting of the risks of severe anal incontinence (mean utility score 0.32), emergency caesarean section (0.51), moderate anal incontinence (0.56), severe urinary incontinence (0.56), fourth-degree tears (0.59) and third-degree tears (0.72). The views of midwives were closest to those of pregnant women. Urogynaecologists and colorectal surgeons were the most risk averse, with 42 and 41%, respectively, stating that they would request an elective caesarean for themselves or their partners. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women were willing to accept significantly higher risks of potential complications of VD than clinicians involved in their care. Pregnant women's views were more closely aligned to midwives than to medical specialists.

Voiding function in pregnancy and puerperium.

Bladder function changes significantly in pregnancy. This study prospectively examined voiding function in a nulliparous cohort. A total of 200 nulliparous women were seen twice during pregnancy and 2-5 months postpartum. Flowmetry, ultrasound estimation of residual urine and translabial ultrasound of bladder neck mobility were evaluated. The Liverpool nomograms were used to calculate maximum and average flow rate (MFR and AFR) centiles. Flowmetry was available on 186 women at 6-18 weeks, 165 women at 32-39 weeks and 162 women 2-5 months postpartum. Voided volumes decreased from 253 to 180 ml during pregnancy (p<0.001), increasing again to 198 ml postpartum. MFR centiles increased during pregnancy [from 49 (SD 28) to 58 (SD 29), p=0.003], and this trend continued postpartum [to 61.8 (SD 26.8), p<0.001]. Changes correlated weakly but significantly with changes in several parameters of bladder neck mobility (e.g. urethral rotation and MFR centiles, r=0.182, p=0.027). MFR and AFR centiles increase in pregnancy and with childbirth, and increases correlate weakly with changes in bladder neck mobility.

The association of obstructive defecation, lower urinary tract dysfunction and the benign joint hypermobility syndrome: a case-control study.

It has been suggested that, apart from obstetric trauma, chronic straining at stool may also result in pudendal nerve damage, contributing to the etiology of genuine stress incontinence (GSI). The benign joint hypermobility syndrome (BJHS) has been associated with rectal as well as uterovaginal prolapse, suggesting that connective tissue abnormalities may also be implicated. This study was undertaken in order to further investigate whether - and if so, why - an association may exist between symptoms of obstructive defecation, lifetime constipation, chronic heavy lifting and lower urinary tract (LUT) dysfunction. Cases were female patients referred for urodynamic assessment with symptoms of LUT dysfunction. Controls were age-, sex- and postcode-matched community controls. Both cases and controls were assessed using a detailed questionnaire that also asked about symptoms of BJHS. Cases were also divided into their urodynamic classification of LUT dysfunction. All symptoms of obstructive defecation (52.3% vs 33.6%, P=0.00003), as well as chronic straining at stool (38.6% vs 23.4%, P=0.0005), were significantly more common in women with LUT dysfunction than in community controls. BJHS, chronic heavy lifting and a history of uterovaginal prolapse were significantly associated with patients with LUT and obstructive defecation compared to those with LUT dysfunction alone. Overall, symptoms of obstructed defecation were not more prevalent in any one urodynamic diagnostic group than in others. However, childhood constipation and current constipation were significantly more prevalent in women with voiding dysfunction than in those with other urodynamic diagnoses (16.7% vs 5.5%, P = 0.0030 and 13.0% vs 5.7%, P = 0.017). We concluded that women with LUT dysfunction are more likely to have symptoms of obstructive defecation than are community controls. Connective tissue disorders such as BJHS may be an important factor in this association.

Is there an association between fecal incontinence and lower urinary dysfunction?

BACKGROUND: Urinary and fecal incontinence in females are both common and distressing conditions. Because common pathophysiologic mechanisms have been described, an association between the two would be expected. The aim of this study was to determine whether patients with lower urinary tract dysfunction have concomitant fecal incontinence when compared with age and gender matched community controls and, second, to determine whether they have predisposing factors that have led to lower urinary tract symptoms and concomitant fecal incontinence. METHODS: A case-control study was performed by means of detailed questionnaire and review of investigation results. One thousand consecutive females presenting for urodynamic investigation of lower urinary tract dysfunction, were compared with 148 age and gender matched community controls. RESULTS: Frequent fecal incontinence was significantly more prevalent among all cases than among community controls (5 vs. 0.72 percent, P = 0.023). Occasional fecal incontinence was also more prevalent (24.6 vs. 8.4 percent, P < 0.001). Fecal incontinence was not significantly more prevalent among females with genuine stress incontinence (5.1 percent) when compared with females with detrusor instability (3.8 percent) or any other urodynamic diagnosis. Symptoms of fecal urgency and fecal urge incontinence were significantly more prevalent among those with a urodynamic diagnosis of detrusor instability or sensory urgency than among females with other urodynamic diagnoses or community controls. Multivariate analysis comparing cases with fecal incontinence with other cases and also with community controls did not indicate that individual obstetric factors contributed significantly to the occurrence of fecal incontinence in these patients. CONCLUSIONS: There is an association between genuine stress incontinence, lower urinary tract dysfunction, and symptoms of fecal incontinence, but the exact mechanism of injury related to childbirth trauma is questioned.

Vaginal oestradiol for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms in postmenopausal women--a double-blind placebo-controlled study.

A prospective randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of 17-beta oestradiol 25-mg vaginal tablets or placebo daily for 12 weeks was undertaken in 110 postmenopausal women with urinary frequency, urgency and/or urge incontinence recruited from a tertiary referral urogynaecology clinic. After 3 months the only statistically significant difference was a greater reduction in urinary urgency in those women with sensory urgency treated with 17-beta oestradiol compared to placebo. This may be due to the effective treatment of local vaginal atrophy by low-dose oestrogen rather than any effect on the lower urinary tract.

Low dose oestrogen prophylaxis for recurrent urinary tract infections in elderly women.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of oral oestriol in the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections in elderly women. DESIGN: Double-blind, randomised, parallel group, placebo controlled trial SETTING: Urogynaecology Unit at King's College Hospital with some women recruited from the geriatric units of St. Pancras Hospital and Dulwich Hospital, London (UK). PARTICIPANTS: Seventy-two postmenopausal women older than 60 years of age (mean 73.2 years) suffering from recurrent urinary tract infections. INTERVENTION: Oral oestriol (3 mg per day) or placebo for six months. MAIN: outcome measures Urinary tract infection rates. RESULTS: The study was difficult to conduct because of its design and the age of the participants. Oral oestriol (3 mg per day) was not shown to be superior to placebo in the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections, but both oestriol and placebo improved urinary symptoms during the trial. CONCLUSION: The power of the study might have been too low to detect a significant difference between the groups, or oral oestriol (3 mg per day) may have been either the wrong dose or the wrong route of administration for this indication.

Prevalence and significance of urethral instability in women with detrusor instability.

The phenomenon of urethral instability has been poorly defined and its significance is disputed. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and significance of urethral instability in a group of women with idiopathic detrusor instability. Urethral instability was defined as a spontaneous fall in maximum urethral pressure of one-third or more, in the absence of detrusor activity, over a 2-min period. Urethral instability occurred in 42% of patients with detrusor instability and was strongly associated with the sequence of relaxation of the urethra prior to unprovoked detrusor contraction. Women with detrusor instability and a stable urethra exhibited primary contraction of the detrusor. The symptom of stress incontinence was more common in women with urethral instability. Women with detrusor instability may be subdivided into 2 groups on the basis of urethral instability, the presence of which suggests a primary dysfunction of the urethra. Such patients may derive more benefit from treatment with an alpha adrenoceptor agonist in addition to (or instead of) standard anticholinergic therapy.

Assessment of urinary symptoms in early pregnancy.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the correlation between lower urinary tract symptoms and urodynamic findings in early pregnancy. SETTING: The termination clinic and gynaecology ward at King's College Hospital. DESIGN: Observational study. SUBJECTS: 47 women before termination of pregnancy at between 6 and 15 weeks. INTERVENTIONS: Women filled in symptom questionnaires and then had urodynamic investigations, consisting of uroflowmetry and subtracted provoked cystometry. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The occurrence of lower urinary tract symptoms and their association with urodynamic findings. RESULTS: Lower urinary tract symptoms were fairly common but there was poor correlation with the urodynamic findings. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that lower urinary tract symptomatology alone is insufficient to study lower urinary tract dysfunction in pregnancy.