Conservative therapy of female genuine stress incontinence with vaginal cones.

Objective: The objective was to analyse urodynamic data before and after conservative treatment with vaginal cones.

Study Design: The design was an open clinical study and was carried out at the Urogynaecology Unit of the University women's hospital. Eighteen women with genuine urinary stress incontinence were treated with vaginal cones for 6 weeks. Cystometry was performed before and after conservative therapy. The patients' subjective improvement and the urodynamic data have been compared. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Of eighteen women with cone therapy, eight were continent after 6 weeks and showed a significant increase of the dynamic urethral closure pressure. Seven patients reported a subjective improvement, and in three women no change of stress incontinence was observed Colposuspension was performed at a later date in these three cases.

Conclusion: Vaginal cone therapy is a successful method to cure mild female stress incontinence and has the advantage of avoiding incontinence operation. Therapeutic success can be assessed by urodynamic evaluation.