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Efficacy and safety of vaginal electrical stimulation as an alternative or adjunct treatment for overactive bladder syndrome in women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

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Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis

The objective was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vaginal electrical stimulation (VES) as an alternative or adjunct treatment for overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome in women.

Methods

Five English-language databases and four Chinese-language databases were searched to identify relevant studies. Studies comparing VES (VES alone or VES plus other interventions) with other interventions (medicines, bladder training, or PFMT) were included. Voiding diary, quality of life (QoL), and adverse events were extracted from the included studies for comparison.

Results

Seven trials with 601 patients in total were reviewed. The results showed that when compared with other interventions, VES alone significantly improved urgency episodes (p = 0.0008) and voiding frequency (p = 0.01), but did not significantly reduce nocturia (p = 0.85), urinary incontinence episodes (p = 0.90) and number of pads (p = 0.87). When VES plus other interventions was compared with other interventions, the former significantly improved voiding frequency (p < 0.00001), nocturia (p < 0.00001), and number of pads (p = 0.03), but it did not significantly reduce urinary incontinence episodes (p = 0.24). Both VES alone (p < 0.00001) and VES plus other interventions (p = 0.003) showed significant benefit on QoL.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that VES alone decreased urgency episodes and QoL better than other therapies. Although VES alone reduced voiding frequency better and VES plus other therapies decreased nocturia, number of pads, urgency episodes, and QoL better than other therapies, the results should be interpreted with caution for clinical practice because some of the RCTs included were of low quality and because of the small number of studies included.

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Funding

The research reported in this publication was supported by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education Guangdong University Research Platform and Project (No. 2019KZDZX1041), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Fund Committee, Regional Joint Fund-Key Project (2019B1515120040), Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine project (No. 20211171), Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Traditional Chinese Medicine project (No. 20215004), and Guangdong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Academic School inheritance Studio construction project (No. [2013]233).

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Author notes

  1. Jiapeng Huang and Ye Fan contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Jiapeng Huang

  2. Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Medicine in Sichuan Province, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Jiapeng Huang

  3. Research Laboratory of Neurorehabilitation, Research Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Jiapeng Huang

  4. The Second Clinical Medical College, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Ye Fan, Qiuying Deng & Xu Zou

  5. The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510120, China

    Ye Fan, Qiuying Deng & Xu Zou

  6. Medical College of Acu-Moxi and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Dexin Wang & Jin Yu

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  1. Jiapeng Huang
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Contributions

X.Z.: conceptualization and methodology; D.W. and Q.D.: data curation and statistical analysis; J.H. and Y.F.: writing the original draft preparation; J.Y.: writing, reviewing, and provided funding for editorial support. All authors contributed to the article.

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Correspondence to Xu Zou.

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Huang, J., Fan, Y., Wang, D. et al. Efficacy and safety of vaginal electrical stimulation as an alternative or adjunct treatment for overactive bladder syndrome in women: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Int Urogynecol J 34, 2345–2357 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-023-05546-w

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