Can surgery be used to treat mixed urinary incontinence?
Mixed urinary incontinence means the patient has both stress incontinence and urge incontinence. There are several issues the patient needs to understand before agreeing to surgery. Surgery can put the urethra and bladder back where they belong, but this may only cure the stress component of the incontinence. However, the symptoms of urgency may continue and cause incontinence and wetness. To completely address mixed incontinence, surgery should be combined with proper diet, pelvic muscle exercise, and medications. Some women with prolapse have both stress and urge incontinence. Repairing the prolapse will cure both types of incontinence in approximately two-thirds of these women. This is especially likely if the urge incontinence developed only after the prolapse. The other one-third of women will still require medication to address the urinary urgency.
