Electrical and Functional Magnetic Stimulation in the Management of Children’s Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction—A Current Literature Review

TL;DR

This paper reviews how electrical and magnetic stimulation methods can help treat urinary issues in children.

Contribution

The paper provides a current review of functional magnetic stimulation as a novel treatment for children's lower urinary tract dysfunction.

Findings

Functional magnetic stimulation shows acceptable evidence of efficacy in treating children's lower urinary tract dysfunction.

Only a few clinical controlled trials have been conducted in this area.

Future large-scale randomized trials are needed to confirm these findings.

Abstract

Background and Objective: Children’s lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) is a frequently diagnosed condition. Initial management measures, such as parental education, urotherapy, and constipation management, followed by drug-based and surgical therapies, are well known. In recent years, different electrical, transcutaneous nerve stimulation methods (sacral, tibial, and intravesical) were studied, and magnetic stimulation has gained importance in the treatment of lower urinary tract dysfunctions. This review aimed to examine the efficacy of functional magnetic stimulation in treating children’s LUTD. Materials and Methods: Our review was carried out in the following databases: PubMed/Medline and Google Scholar. Results: We limited our search to articles published in the last 8 years (2018–2025). Our used keywords were: “functional magnetic stimulation, electrical stimulation, children’s lower urinary tract dysfunction, children’s overactive bladder, enuresis”. The final search revealed a total of 132 results; articles written in languages other than English were excluded. In the end, a total of 16 articles presenting ES (12 articles) and FMS (four articles) in the treatment of children’s lower urinary tract dysfunction were included in our narrative review. Conclusions: In spite of a few clinical controlled trials, our review concerning functional magnetic stimulation (FMS) provides acceptable evidence to support the efficacy of these methods among the pediatric population. In the future, large sample, randomized controlled trials are needed in this field.