Long-term effects of a urotherapy training program in children with functional urinary incontinence: a 2-year follow-up

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of a urotherapy training program implemented at our institution. Day- and/or night-time wetting as a consequence of functional urinary incontinence is a common problem in childhood. A number of treatment methods are available, among them urotherapy.

Material and methods: Forty-eight patients (age range 10-14 years) with urge incontinence or dysfunctional voiding were evaluated with a questionnaire 2 years after completion of a urotherapy training program.

Results: Two years after completion of training, 86.7% of the inpatient and 93.8% of the outpatient groups with day-time wetting and 79.2% of the inpatient and 41.6% of the outpatient groups with night-time wetting were cured or had improved.

Conclusions: Compared with the published data on the natural course of incontinence, the urotherapy program evaluated in this study resulted in higher success rates. Compared with 6-month follow-up, improvement rates proved to be stable, and cure rates (with the exception of patients with night-time wetting in the outpatient training group) even increased significantly during the 2-year follow-up.