Urethrovesical ultrasonography as an effective method for evaluating prognostic parameters in the surgical management of stress urinary incontinence*

OBJECTIVE: To compare sonographic parameters related to the urethrovesical junction and proximal urethra in cured and not cured patients surgically treated with the Burch technique, for establishing a possible correlation with prognostic factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty female patients were selected and divided into two groups: 15 patients considered as clinically cured and 15 not cured. The patients were submitted to preoperative transvulvar ultrasonography, with the examination being repeated at the 30th and 180th postoperative days. RESULTS: At the preoperative examination, the proximal urethra displacement was largest in the cured patients (15.87 ± 4.55 mm × 12.47 ± 3.52 mm – p < 0.05). At the postoperative examination, with strain, the vertical distance of the urethrovesical junction and the proximal urethra were largest in the cured patients (12.87 ± 5.80 mm × 5.13 ± 6.55 mm – p < 0.01; and 13.07 ± 6.44 mm × 6.20 ± 6.14 mm – p < 0.01), and the vertical displacement of the urethrovesical junction and proximal urethra was largest in the not cured patients (8.47 ± 3.98 mm × 5.13 ± 2.36 mm – p < 0.001; and 8.33 ± 4.54 mm × 5.20 ± 2.90 mm – p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Ultrasonography of the urethrovesical junction and proximal urethra can be considered as an effective method for evaluating prognostic parameters in the surgical management of women with stress urinary incontinence.