Electrical stimulation compared with tolterodine for treatment of urge/urge incontinence amongst women--a randomized controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Few randomized controlled trials have compared electrical stimulation treatment with drug therapy. Our hypothesis was that electrical stimulation treatment in women with urgency/urge incontinence would be more efficient compared to drug treatment.

METHODS

Women ≥18 years of age with urgency/urge incontinence were randomized to receive either ten electrical stimulation treatments vaginally and transanally over a period of 5-7 weeks or tolterodine 4 mg orally once daily.

RESULTS

Sixty-one women completed the study. There was no significant difference between the two treatment groups in micturition rate from baseline to 6 months, mean difference, -0.40 (95% confidence interval (CI), -1.61 to 0.82), but a clearly significant difference within each group for electrical stimulation, -2.8 (95% CI, -3.7 to -1.9), and for tolterodine, -3.2 (95% CI, -4.1 to -2.4).

CONCLUSIONS

Both treatments reduced the number of micturitions, but electrical stimulation was not found to be superior to tolterodine.