Bariatric surgery in the morbidly obese and the improvement in stress urinary incontinence: A retrospective chart review

Abstract

Obesity in America is reaching epidemic stages. An underlying co-morbidity of obesity is stress urinary incontinence. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between bariatric surgery in the obese patient and changes in their stress urinary incontinence. Methods: This retrospective chart study looked at 89 patients who had reported some level of urinary incontinence prior to bariatric surgery. Patients’ levels of incontinence, body mass indices (BMI), and weights were measured before surgery and at 4, 8, 12 weeks, 6 months, 1, 2, 3, and 4 years after surgery. Of the 89 subjects, 100% reported some level of urinary incontinence prior to surgery. All subjects were women (age 46 + 22 years) and all underwent gastric bypass surgery. Results: Of the 89 patients, 63% showed some improvement or resolution in their incontinence after 4 weeks. Of the 78 reporting patients 89% showed resolution of incontinence at 1 year. Conclusion: Bariatric surgery reduced the prevalence of urinary incontinence. One hundred percent of the patients with stress urinary incontinence before surgery eventually reported some improvement or resolution of their symptoms after having the surgery. However, reductions in excess body weight and BMI showed no significant relationships with improvements or resolution of urinary incontinence