Effects of External Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation in Women With Urgency Urinary Incontinence: A Randomized Sham-Controlled Study

Our study will be carried out with female patients between the ages of 18-65 who have Urge urinary Incontinence (UUI) symptoms and applied to the Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Training and Research Hospital, Gynecology and Obstetrics Policlinic. Inclusion criterias are; who do not want to use medication, who do not benefit from medication for a long time or who do not use any medication. Exclusion criterias are; Those with any malignant conditions, those with neurological disease, those with infection, pregnant women, those with pelvic organ prolapse above stage 2 according to the POP-Q staging, those with cardiac implants and pacemakers, those with cardiac arrhythmia, those with urinary retention, those with sensory loss, copper coil intrauterine those who wear a vehicle, patients with metal implants and patients with communication and cooperation problems.

Before starting the study, all participants will be questioned about demographic and physical characteristics, medical, obstetric, gynecological and urological history and drug use. After these evaluations, sensory and reflex evaluations will be made. Sensory assessment will be performed with a light touch test to the hip circumference and pelvic floor muscles. In reflex evaluation, anal and bulbocavernous reflexes will be checked. All of the applications will be carried out by Specialist Physiotherapist Tuğba Birben under the supervision of Specialist Gynecologist Physician Beril Gürlek.

Our study will be in 2 groups. It is estimated that the number of people will consist of 40 volunteers, with 20 patients for each group. The sample size will be determined after the pilot study. Patients who were diagnosed with UUI, met the study criteria and accepted to be included in the study, within a period of 9 months after the approval of the ethics committee, with the four-block randomization method, via the website https://www.sealedenvelope.com/simple-randomiser/v1/lists will be included in groups according to randomization. lifestyle suggestions (LSS)+ NMES (NMES group) will be applied to the first group and LSS + SHAM Electrical Stimulation (SHAM ES group) will be applied to the second group. Each group will be included in the 8-week treatment program for 30 minutes, 3 days a week.

Pelvic floor muscle function of all participants will be evaluated with the Modified Oxford Scale before treatment, at the end of the 4th week and after treatment. In addition, women's bladder function with the urinary diary, incontinence symptoms with the International Incontinence Consultation Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF) and the Coital Incontinence Score (CIS), quality of life with the King Health Questionnaire (KHQ) and Sexual Function will be evaluated with Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12). At the end of the 8th week, both the Subjective perception of improvement and treatment satisfaction of the patients will be questioned.