For women with urine leakage related to coughing or exertion, surgery to correct the problem is more effective than collagen injections - although that approach may be a worthwhile alternative for some women - new research shows.

Collagen injections for the treatment of stress Urinary Incontinence were introduced in the early 1990s but they have not been formally studied, the investigators explain in the medical journal Urology.

Dr. Jacques Corcos from McGill University in Montreal, and colleagues compared the efficacy and side effects of collagen injections and surgery in the treatment of 118 women with stress Urinary Incontinence.

The success rate a year after the procedures was greater among the 54 women treated with surgery (63 percent) than among the 64 women treated with collagen injections (50 percent), the researchers found.

More women in the collagen group (33 percent) than in the surgery group (20 percent), however, were satisfied with their procedure, the report indicates.

One month after the intervention, quality-of-life scores were much worse in the surgery group, the researchers note, but after 12 months there were no significant differences between the groups in any of the quality-of-life measures.

While surgery “remains the treatment of choice” for most cases of female stress Urinary Incontinence, Corcos and colleagues conclude, “the results of this study may redefine the role of collagen injection even in the era of so-called minimally invasive surgical techniques.”

The relatively few side effects and short convalescent period with collagen injection “should lead to additional investigations assessing its long-term utility, side effects, and costs in different patient populations, especially the frail elderly and young active women,” the team recommends.

SOURCE: Urology, May 2005.