Future treatment for the female stress urinary incontinence

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a major urologie health problem and the number of patients with SUI will rise dramatically as the population of elderly people continues to increase in Japan. This condition causes unnecessary and detrimental psychological distress, social isolation, and public expense for care. Surgery remains the cornerstone of treatment for female SUI and also in those who have failed to improve with conservative measures. Many surgical procedures, however, have been described with varying degree of success. The ideal surgical treatment for this disease should be effective in QOL improvement, minimal invasive and durable for the long-term. Based on a new understanding of the pathophysiology of SUI as well as the development of surgical techniques and devices, mid urethral sling operations such as TVT (tension-free vaginal tape) have become widely used and they provide significant short-term and long-term cure rates. However, perioperative complications, including serious problems like bowel, vascular and bladder injuries have been reported. Most complications are related to blind trocar passage in the retropubic space. The alternative procedure transobturator procedure was developed to minimize these complications, in which tape is introduced through the obturator foramen. This technique provides high short-term cure rates, similar to those achieved with TVT, but with fewer complications. A number of injectables have been used for the treatment of SUI, including collagen, coated-beeds and Teflon. Although injectable treatment is convenient and minimally invasive, efficacy and durability are lower than other surgical procedures. Modification by tissue-engineering techniques using autologous stem cells or precursors of mature cells showed regeneration and reconstitution of urinary sphincteric function. In the future this strategy may be an attractive therapy for SUI. The choice of operation should be tailored to suit each individual case based on the clinical and urodynamic findings, as well as the age and the expectations of treatment outcome.