Noninvasive High-Intensity Focused Electromagnetic Therapy in Women With Urinary Incontinence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Introduction: Urinary incontinence (UI) is an uncontrollable expulsion of urine at a time. UI is obviously not life-threatening, but its impact on the patient's quality of life (QoL) is often devastating. Many treatments method to address this problem but all these methods have limitations. Recently, a brand-new noninvasive treatment for pelvic floor muscles (PFM) using a high-intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) field was unveiled. HIFEM therapy may provide better results thus in this study, we aim to summarize the existing evidence and assess the efficacy and safety of HIFEM.

Method: The databases used were Pubmed, Cochrane, EMBASE, and SCOPUS. The literature search was performed using strategic keywords (women) AND ((High Intensity Electromagnetic Field) OR (Electromagnetic Stimulation)) AND ((urinary incontinence) OR (overactive bladder) OR (pelvic floor dysfunction)). Articles that meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria are then analyzed.

Results: Seven studies were included in this review, most of the studies concluded that the usage of HIFEM can reduce the symptoms related to UI significantly and improve QoL. There was higher decrease of UI episodes (MD: -4.10, 95% CI: -7.34 to -0.85, p = 0.01) and improvement of ICIQ-UI SF score (MD: -3.03, 95% CI: -3.27 to -2.79, p = < 0.00001) in HIFEM group compared to control. Subgroup analyses showed better QoL parameter (MD -3.40; p = 0.01, MD -0.70; p = 0.04) compared to control, albeit statistically comparable overall (p = 0.09). However, both pooled analyses for contraction and resting tone changes revealed that there were no significant differences between both groups (SMD: 0.98, 95% CI: -0.70 to 2.660, p = 0.25 and SMD: 0.20, 95% CI: -0.18 to 0.58, p = 0.30, respectively). Finally, there was no safety issue highlighted in most of the studies included.

Conclusion: Current published studies suggest that HIFEM may be an effective and safe noninvasive treatment for female UI by promoting QoL. However, due to being high in heterogeneity and possible bias, future high-quality trials with proper blinding and standardized outcomes are necessary to conclude the applicability of HIFEM for UI.