A Pilot Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial of Electroacupuncture for Women with Pure Stress Urinary Incontinence

BackgroundAcupuncture is a potential conservative therapy for women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). There is limited evidence to support its effectiveness due to the poor quality of existing studies.MethodsWe performed a pilot randomized, controlled trial to preliminarily assess the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in women with pure SUI. A total of 80 women with pure SUI were randomly assigned to receive EA with deep needling at BL33 and BL35 (n = 40) or sham EA with non-penetrating needling at sham acupoints (n = 40) three sessions per week for 6 weeks. The women were followed for 24 weeks. The primary outcome was the change from baseline in the amount of urine leakage measured by a 1-hour pad test after 6 weeks. The secondary outcomes included the 72-hour incontinence episode frequency (IEF), International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF) score, and patient self-evaluation of therapeutic effect. Adverse events (AEs) were monitored throughout the trial.ResultsThe median decrease from baseline of urine leakage measured by the 1-hour pad test was 2.5 g [interquartile range (IQR): 1.80–14.6 in the EA group, which was greater than the median decrease of 0.05 g (IQR: -2.80–+0.50) in the sham EA group after 6 weeks (pConclusionEA may effectively and safely relieve urinary incontinence symptoms and improve quality of life in women with pure SUI. EA demonstrated more than a placebo effect. Since this is a pilot study, results should be interpreted with caution.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02445573.