Purpose: We prospectively evaluated the efficacy of a combination of desmopressin and oxybutynin for treating children with nocturnal enuresis, compared to the single drugs imipramine and desmopressin.
Materials and methods: We enrolled 158 patients from 2003 to 2004. Children were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups and treated with desmopressin, imipramine or a combination of desmopressin plus oxybutynin. Of these patients 145 (100 boys and 45 girls, mean age 7.8 +/- 2.5 years, range 5 to 15) were followed for more than 6 months. Efficacy was measured at 1, 3 and 6 months in terms of average enuretic frequency, 5-scale response based on change in nocturnal enuretic frequency after treatment and posttreatment enuretic frequency as a percentage of pretreatment baseline frequency. The latter efficacy was classified according to daytime voiding symptoms. Statistical evaluation was performed using chi-square tests and ANOVA.
Results: Of the 145 children followed 48 received combination therapy, 49 received desmopressin and 48 received imipramine. A total of 68 patients (47%) had monosymptomatic enuresis and 77 (53%) had polysymptomatic enuresis. Combination therapy produced the best and most rapid results regardless of whether the children had monosymptomatic or polysymptomatic enuresis.
Conclusions: Combination therapy with desmopressin plus oxybutynin for the treatment of pediatric nocturnal enuresis was well tolerated, and gave significantly faster and more cost-effective results than single drug therapy using either desmopressin or imipramine.