Prospective analysis of obesity and the effect of bariatric surgery on urinary incontinence

Abstract

Objective: To determine the presence of urinary incontinence in obese women and the postoperative effect of bariatric surgery at months 3, 6, and 12.

Materials and methods: An observational, prospective, and longitudinal study was conducted on obese women that underwent bariatric surgery within the time frame of April to July 2017. Inferential statistics with a bivariate analysis were performed using the chi-square test.

Results: Sixty-seven patients were included in the study. A total of 73.1% presented with some type of urinary incontinence. Their mean age was 42.7 years, mean preoperative weight was 108.3 kg, and mean body mass index was 42.7 kg/m2. The most frequent type of urinary incontinence was stress incontinence (55.1%), 65.3% of the patients presented with mild urinary incontinence, and quality of life was negatively affected in 30.6%. One year after surgery, mean body mass index was 30.9 kg/m2 and 13.4% of the patients continued to present with urinary incontinence, all of which were cases of stress incontinence. The postoperative improvement of urinary incontinence was statistically significant in relation to the three types of incontinence (p=0.001), frequency (p<0.001), and quality of life (p<0.001). Urinary incontinence was completely resolved in 81.6% of the patients.

Conclusions: Weight loss after bariatric surgery greatly resolved urinary incontinence, showing that weight reduction should be considered a first-line therapy for managing that syndrome. The primary aim of bariatric surgery is to reduce cardiovascular morbidity, but the recovery from and/or improvement of urinary incontinence should be routinely evaluated, offering another important long-term benefit.