title: Epidural anesthesia during labor and stress incontinence after delivery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia during labor prevents the development of stress incontinence after vaginal birth.
  
  
  METHODS
  We interviewed 208 primiparas about stress incontinence 3 months postpartum. The women who developed stress incontinence after delivery were interviewed again 1 year postpartum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve of 45 women (27%) who had epidural anesthesia developed stress incontinence de novo after vaginal delivery, versus 21 of 163 (13%) who did not receive epidural anesthesia, a marginally significant difference (P = .05). Those who had epidural anesthesia also had a significantly longer first stage of labor. One year after delivery, three of 42 (7%) in the epidural anesthesia group had stress incontinence, compared with five of 163 (3%) in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results do not support the hypothesis that epidural anesthesia protects against the development of stress incontinence after vaginal delivery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Viktrup
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lose
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007743:Labor, Obstetric; D011247:Pregnancy; D011644:Puerperal Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000517:prevention & control*