Urine Dip/Culture

This is an office test done to rule out the presence of infection. If the urine dip turns out to be positive then a culture is necessary to find out the organism and aantibacterial sensitivity. When women with urinary infection present with incontinence this is the first investigation that needs to be done.

Voiding Diary

It is essential to identify the voiding habits of women before treatment can be instituted. A voiding diary for 3 days gives us information about the quantity and type of fluid intake, urgency, leakage episodes and activity during leakage.

Bladder Scan

A bladder scan is usually done to see the volume of residual urine remaining in the bladder after a woman voids. A residual urine of more than 100ml usually indicates that there is a voiding problem.

Cystoscopy
This is usually done as an outpatient procedure under local anaesthesia. This entails looking inside the bladder using a small telescope. The procedure is painless and takes less than 5 min to complete. Bladder calculi, infection, stricture urethra, bladder muscle thickening and tumors are a few things that can be diagnosed by this procedure.

Urodynamics

Urodynamics is a bladder physiology study. It is probably the most important study that one can do in a patient with urinary incontinence. The study is done in a urodynamics lab in strict privacy. The patient is asked to lie on a couch in a recumbent position and her bladder is connected to a computer by catheters. The study is basically done to identify whether the patient has any obstruction to flow of urine, stable bladder and the pressure in the urethra. Many a time surgical decision making depends on urodynamic variables.