Minimal care--a new concept for the management of urinary incontinence in an open access, interdisciplinary incontinence clinic. The way ahead?

A new concept for assessment and treatment of urinary incontinence in an open access, interdisciplinary clinic is evaluated prospectively. Based on the patients needs and expectations, a minimal relevant investigative programme was planned. The patients were primarily offered conservative, non-surgical treatment modalities with a limited consumption of resources. The reference programme for investigation and treatment is referred to as the "minimal care principle". We here report our results in the first 300 women and 27 men consecutively investigated and created in the clinic. Ninety percent of the patients were managed by conservative treatment modalities whereas only 10% of the patients were referred to in-hospital treatment with invasive treatment modalities, mainly surgical procedures for urinary incontinence. Subjectively, 68% felt cured or very much improved, 23% experienced improvement and 9% did not report benefit of the treatment. Objectively, significantly diminished leakage of urine could be demonstrated in 71% of the patients by the pad weighing test. Our results demonstrate that an open access, interdisciplinary clinic is well accepted by the patients and effective for the evaluation and treatment of urinary incontinence.