Summary. A set of weighted vaginal cones designed to exercise the pelvic floor muscles was used by a group of 39 premenopausal patients with genuine stress incontinence who were awaiting corrective surgery. The effectiveness of the exercises in reducing urinary loss was assessed with a standard urine pad test before and after 1 month of training. Of the 30 women who completed 1 month of the exercises 70% felt they were improved or cured and 90% found it an acceptable method of treatment. Of the 30 women only 11 (37%) opted for surgery after training. There was a highly significant correlation (P<0·001, rs= ‐0·21) between decreased urine loss and increase in retained cone weight.

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Selective electrical pudendal nerve stimulation calibrated to achieve a "maximal motor response" as recorded electromyographically in the periurethral sphincter was found to increase the micturition threshold in three neurological patients with detrusor hyperreflexia. Such electrical stimulation (0.2-ms long pulses at 5 Hz and up to 2.0 mA) could conceivably be also supplied by an implanted "vesicoinhibitory" stimulator, and this report is considered as a pilot study towards formulation of such a therapeutic approach.

Urethral and bladder responses to anal electrical stimulation were evaluated by cystometry and urethral pressure profile measurements in 55 patients with different urethral-bladder dysfunctions. In 50 per cent of the patients examined the electrical stimulation caused normal reciprocal response, that is bladder inhibition with urethral contraction. In other patients the electrical stimulation caused almost all other possible bladder and urethral responses.