Özet:

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of new generation external electrical stimulation on incontinence symptoms in women with stress urinary incontinence. Methods: Thirteen patients (age: 55.69±8.60 years, body mass index: 33.51±4.72 kg/m2) with stress urinary incontinence were included in the study. Pelvic floor muscle strength and endurance were evaluated with perineometer, incontinence severity with 24-hour pad test, perceived effect of urinary incontinence on quality of life with Visual Analogue Scale (VAS, cm) and self-reported improvement with using the four-item Likert-type scale. All measurements were performed before and after 8 weeks of treatment. As treatment, external electrical stimulation was performed as 3 days in a week, 30-minute session for 8 weeks. The pre-treatment and post-treatment comparisons of the variables were analyzed with the Wilcoxon test and the statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: Compared with pretreatment, there was a significant increase in pelvic floor muscle strength and endurance value, 24-hour pad test amount and significant improvement in perceived effect of urinary incontinence on quality of life (p<0.05). In addition, self-reported improvement results showed that most of the individuals (92.3%) had reduced symptoms and felt better. Conclusion: It was determined that external electrical stimulation applied 3 days for 8 weeks in patients with stress urinary incontinence improved symptoms but was insufficient for complete recovery. Studies with longer duration and a larger sample size are needed.

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