Solifenacin Succinate vs. Fesoterodine A Comparison Trial for the Treatment of Bothersome Urgency Symptoms

The National Overactive Bladder Evaluation (NOBLE) Program estimated the prevalence of OAB in the US is nearly 17% affecting approximately 30 million adults. Sixty-one percent of adults with OAB also have urge urinary incontinence (UUI. Urinary urgency is a key symptom of OAB. Urgency may be more bothersome to patients than urinary frequency, although urinary frequency is often the primary focus of study in the field of OAB. This may be partially due to controversy surrounding how to define the term 'urinary urgency'. As currently defined, urgency is meant to describe an abnormal sensation that is distinguishable from the normal feeling of "urge to void," which occurs during a normal bladder-filling cycle. Attempts to measure urgency are confounded by difficulties in understanding this definition in the context of a normal "urge" to void. This controversy probably arises because of the overlap of the English words 'urge' and 'urgency' during clinical conversation, and apparently does not give rise to confusion in other languages. Recently a new validated questionnaire for the measurement of urgency symptoms was validated[5, 6]. The USIQ consists of two parts with an initial filter question, designated for self-administration. The first 5 items, known as USIQ- severity (USIQ-S), inquires about urgency symptoms and severity, while the second part USIQ- quality of life (USIQ-QOL) consists of 8 questions which inquire about bother and condition specific QOL such as: cooping behaviors, work, commuting and travel, sleep, physical activities, social activities, psychological well-being, relationships and sexual function. Items for each scale are summed and transformed to a score ranging from 0-100. Higher symptom bother scores indicate increasing symptom bother, and higher USIQ-QOL scores indicate worse health related quality of life. The main objective of this current study is to compare the effect of two different anticholinergic medications on symptoms of urinary urgency using a validated, subjective instruments designed specifically for this purpose.