Urinary incontinence following subtotal and total hysterectomy: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the best surgical approach for the female urinary incontinence. METHODS: Systematic review conducted in MEDLINE(®) Cochrane, EMBASE and LILACS database up to September 1(st), 2017. Articles were selected according to study type, type of intervention and outcomes. Articles were selected by more than one researcher based on title, abstract and full text. The SIGN checklist was used for bias assessment. RESULTS: A total of 165 articles were retrieved from MEDLINE(®) . Twenty-five studies were elected for full text reading, and 11 of them were selected for the final text analysis. The heterogeneity between questionnaires used in different studies precluded a meta-analysis of results. CONCLUSION: This study yielded evidences supporting the hypothesis that total and subtotal hysterectomy have different impacts on urinary function of patients with benign uterine diseases. Articles revealed higher frequency of urinary incontinence following subtotal compared to total hysterectomy.