NEW ORLEANS – Neil M. Resnick, MD, has devoted more than 30 years of his career to refining the diagnosis and management of geriatric urinary incontinence. He has found it to be a deeply rewarding area of his medical practice. And he wants primary care physicians to share the joy.
Dr. Neil M. Resnick
Once you get the hang of it, you’re going to love it,” he promised at the annual meeting of the American College of Physicians.
“There is so much you have to offer, and it’s going to make you one happy, fulfilled, non–burned-out physician,” added Dr. Resnick, professor of medicine and chief of the division of geriatric medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
He insisted that geriatric urinary incontinence belongs squarely in the province of primary care physicians, not just urologic surgeons. That’s because the condition is typically caused or exacerbated by medical diseases and drugs.
“These are things for which we are the experts, because they are conditions outside the bladder that our surgical colleagues aren’t always expert in,” the internist emphasized.
The seven reversible causes of geriatric urinary incontinence, which are categorized as transient urinary incontinence, can easily be remembered by busy primary care practitioners with the aid of a mnemonic of Dr. Resnick’s own devising: DIAPERS. It stands for Delirium, Infection, Atrophic urethritis/vaginitis, Pharmaceuticals, Excess urine output, Restricted mobility, and Stool impaction.
“Treatable causes of urinary incontinence are much more common in older people than in the young,” Dr. Resnick said. “If you just pay attention to these, and you can’t even spell ‘bladder,’ you can cure one-third of older patients. It’s pretty dramatic. And it improves the incontinence in all of the people in whom it’s still persistent, and that means improved responsiveness to further treatment addressing the urinary tract, improvement of other problems related to the incontinence, better quality of life, and it just makes patients better overall. This is really the joy and glory of geriatrics.”
He emphasized that urinary incontinence is never normal, no matter how advanced the patient’s age. The basic geriatric principle is that aging reduces resilience. Bladder sensation and contractility decrease with age. The prostate enlarges. Sphincter strength and urethral length decrease in older women. Involuntary bladder contractions occur in half of all elderly individuals. Nocturnal urine excretion increases. Postvoid urine volume creeps up to 50-100 mL. These are normal changes, but they predispose to tipping over into urinary incontinence in the setting of any additional challenges created by DIAPERS.
The scope of the problem
More than one-third of elderly individuals experience urinary incontinence with daily to weekly frequency. The associated morbidity includes cellulitis, perineal rashes, pressure ulcers, falls, fractures, anxiety, depression, and sexual dysfunction. The economic cost of geriatric urinary incontinence is believed to exceed that of coronary artery bypass surgery and renal dialysis combined.
“The morbidity is huge and the costs are astonishing,” the geriatrician declared.
Fewer than one-fifth and perhaps as few as one-tenth of affected patients actually require surgery.
Less than 20% of elderly patients with urinary incontinence volunteer that information to their primary care physician because of the stigma involved. So, it’s important to ask about it, he noted.