Magnetic stimulation for female patients with stress urinary incontinence, a meta-analysis of studies with short-term follow-up

BACKGROUND: To determine the efficacy of magnetic stimulation (MS) in female patients with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) by performing a meta-analysis on peer-reviewed randomized controlled trails (RCTs). METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane library were retrieved for any peer-reviewed original articles in English. Databases were searched up to July 2018. Included studies investigated effects of MS on SUI. The data were analyzed by review manager 5.3 software (Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, UK). RESULTS: A total of 4 studies involving 232 patients were identified and included in present meta-analysis. Compared with the sham stimulation, the MS group had statistically significantly fewer leaks/3 days (MD = −1.42; 95%CI: −2.42 to −0.59; P = .007), less urine loss on pad test (g.)/24 h (MD = −4.99; 95%CI: −8.46 to −1.53; P = .005), higher QoL scores (MD = 0.42; 95%CI: 0.02–0.82; P = .009), and lower ICIQ scores (MD = −4.60; 95%CI: −5.02 to −4.19; P < .001). MS presented higher cure or improvement rate, with a statistically significant improvement in UDI and IIQ-SF scores compared to sham stimulation. No MS-related adverse effects were reported in study. CONCLUSION: MS leads to an improvement in SUI without any reported safety concerns and an improvement in patient quality of life. The long-term outcome of this technique remains unclear and is the subject of ongoing research.