What do systematic reviews say?

Electrical stimulation vs pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT)

Electrical stimulation showed no clear difference in improvement: number of women with self‐reported improvement in SUI… compared with pelvic floor muscle training (low certainty).

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  RR 0.85 [0.7, 1.03]
  7 studies · 244 participants
  Low

Electrical stimulation vs No active treatment (control)

Electrical stimulation may leads to higher improvement: number of women with self‐reported improvement in SUI… compared with no active treatment (low certainty).

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  RR 1.73 [1.41, 2.11]
  5 studies · 347 participants
  Low

Electrical stimulation vs sham

Electrical stimulation may leads to higher improvement: number of women with self‐reported improvement in SUI… compared with sham treatment (low certainty).

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  RR 2.03 [1.02, 4.07]
  5 studies · 236 participants
  Low

PFMT added to electrical stimulation vs pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT)

Electrical stimulation plus PFMT showed no clear difference in improvement: number of women with self‐reported improvement in SUI… compared with PFMT (low certainty).

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  RR 1.1 [0.95, 1.28]
  6 studies · 308 participants
  Low

Electrical stimulation plus surgery vs surgery

It is very uncertain whether electrical stimulation plus surgery changes improvement: number of women with self‐reported improvement in SUI… compared with surgery (very low certainty).

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  RR 5.36 [0.61, 47.36]
  1 study · 120 participants
  Very low

Surface ES vs intravaginal ES

The review found no eligible studies for this question.

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  Studies not reported
  No studies found

Low intensity ES plus PFMT vs maximal intensity ES plus PFMT

Low intensity ES plus PFMT may leads to lower improvement: number of women with self‐reported improvement in SUI… compared with maximal intensity ES plus PFMT (low certainty).

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  RR 0.28 [0.09, 0.91]
  1 study · 49 participants
  Low

Conventional ES plus PFMT vs dynamic ES plus PFMT

• Electrical stimulation with non‐implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women 2017 · Cochrane Headline outcomes only
  no estimate extracted
  1 study · 61 participants
  Very low