Preventive vaginal and intra-urethral devices in the treatment of female urinary stress incontinence.

A number of vaginal and urethral devices have recently been introduced for the treatment of female urinary stress incontinence. Nine recent studies of these were scrutinized. The median corrected subjective cured/improved rate was 63% for the vaginal and 43% for the urethral devices. The latter group have a high percentage of side-effects with related drop-outs. Urinary tract infection and migration of the device into the bladder are particularly worrying. The vaginal devices currently available compete favourably with other non-surgical forms of therapy for stress incontinence in terms of efficacy and safety.