Electrical anal stimulation and the prediction of bladder stability after surgical relief of male outflow obstruction.

In an attempt to predict which unstable bladders in males with outflow obstruction would convert to stability following surgery, we performed functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the anus during pre-operative rapid fill cystometry in 13 patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH) and 5 patients with bladder neck obstruction (BNO), all of whom had associated instability. Instability was suppressed in only 2 patients with BPH. Although suppression was achieved in 4 patients with BNO, no correlation was found with either post-operative stability or symptomatology in this group or the patients with BPH and we conclude that FES has no predictive value in this context.