Mensuração objetiva da perda urinária feminina utilizando o teste do absorvente

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI), sometimes still underdiagnosed, is defined as the complaint of any involuntary loss of urine through a symptom perceived by the patient. This health condition is determinant of social isolation, stress, depression, feeling of shame, incapacity conditions and low self-esteem, which results in significant morbidity. To diagnose and quantify urinary loss, the urodynamic study is the most complete yet costly evaluation tool. Thus, other more accessible methods have been used in clinical practice to quantify urinary losses, among them, the pad test. The aim of this study was to evaluate the urinary complaints through the absorbent test. The study was carried out in a public reference hospital in Fortaleza-CE and had as study population the patients attended at the outpatient urogynecology outpatient clinic of the referred hospital who had a record in their medical records of the performance of the pad test in the service and were evaluated using the standardized questionnaires by the International Continence Society to assess the impact of UI on quality of life (QoL). Correlations between the UI impact and the pad test result were performed by the Kruskal-Wallis tests and the Spearman coefficient. It was observed that 39.4% of the women who said they did not lose urine tested positive for the test, whereas most women who reported a certain amount of lost urine also had a positive test. In the analysis of the impact of urinary loss on the quality of life of the patients, the domains of limitation in the performance of daily activities, social limitations, personal relationships, emotions, sleep and disposition and severity measurement of the KHQ questionnaire were the most affected. The probability of the pad test being positive increases the greater the impact of the UI on the QoL. The pad test is also able to assess urinary loss even when it is not expressed by women. Thus, the use of the pad test in association with the subjective findings of the patients is important for a better management of urinary incontinence.