TREATING URINARY INCONTINENCE
About 30-percent of all women suffer from urinary incontinence. Many are too embarrassed to seek help for the problem. But a new solution is making treating the condition easier than ever before. About a procedure that cuts recovery time in half.
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Running, lifting, jumping, even walking. All tasks most women take for granted. But not Claudia Brown.
Claudia Brown
Has urinary incontinence
"If I were going on a jog or a walk, I would you know I couldn't go for more than a mile from home."
That's because Claudia has urinary stress incontinence -- a condition that causes her bladder to leak urine.
Claudia Brown
"You always had to be at some conscious level of where the restrooms were."
Doctor Catherine Nichols says the condition often occurs after pregnancy or a hysterectomy.
Catherine Matthews-Nichols, MD
Uro-gynecologist
VCU Medical Center
Richmond, VA
"The biggest problem with incontinence, I think, is the reluctance on the part of the patients to seek care."
Invasive surgery used to be the only option for some. But now, there's a new way to help women. Through a small incision, a sling -- like this -- supports the urethra and holds it in place to stop the bladder from leaking.
Catherine Matthews-Nichols, MD
"The recovery time is much, much quicker. The operating time is much, much quicker, and the complications are probably less than the gold standard operation."
With the old surgery, 60-percent of patients report relief. 80-percent of women benefit from the new sling procedure.
Claudia had the procedure two weeks ago.
Claudia Brown
"It was an absolute breeze, an absolute breeze. "It's just huge relief. I can't, I can't express it, really, it's just an absolutely wonderful thing."
And now, she can walk right by the restroom without stopping.
The sling procedure cuts recovery time in half and doesn't require general anesthesia. The procedure is now being offered at many major medical centers around the country. Risks are rare but include bleeding and injury during surgery.
BACKGROUND: Urinary incontinence is the inability to hold urine in the bladder. More than 13 million people in the United States experience incontinence, and about 30 percent of all women suffer from it. Women experience urinary incontinence twice as often as men. Pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, and the structure of the female urinary tract may account for this difference. However, both women and men can become incontinent from neurologic injury, birth defects, strokes, multiple sclerosis, and physical problems associated with aging. Older women, more often than younger women, experience incontinence. Incontinence is treatable at all ages. It usually occurs in women because of problems with muscles that help to hold or release urine. The body stores urine -- water and wastes removed by the kidneys -- in the bladder, which is a balloon-like organ. The bladder connects to the urethra -- the tube through which urine leaves the body.
TYPES OF INCONTINENCE: Some common types of urinary incontinence include:
- Stress: Leakage of small amounts of urine during physical movement (coughing, sneezing, exercising).
- Urge: Leakage of large amounts of urine at unexpected times, including during sleep.
- Functional: Untimely urination because of physical disability, external obstacles or problems in thinking or communicating.
- Overflow: Unexpected leakage of small amounts of urine because of a full bladder.
- Mixed: Usually the occurrence of stress and urge incontinence together.
NEW TREATMENT: Doctors from VCU Medical Center in Richmond and elsewhere are now using a sling procedure to treat stress urinary incontinence. The sling is inserted through a small incision and supports the urethra and holds it in place to stop the bladder from leaking during coughing or sneezing. Catherine Matthews-Nichols, M.D., says the procedure is much easier than standard surgery to correct the problem. She says: "The recovery time is much, much quicker. The operating time is much, much quicker, and the complications are probably less than the gold standard operations." Also, the new sling procedure is more effective. About 60 percent of patients report relief with the gold-standard operation, while about 80 percent report relief with the sling procedure. The sling procedure cuts recovery time in half and does not require general anesthesia. Risks are rare but include bleeding and injury during surgery.
WHERE CAN YOU GET IT? The sling procedure is now being offered at many major medical centers around the country.
Malorie Janis
VCU News Services
1006 east Marshall Street
Box 980426
Richmond, VA
VA 23298
(804) 827-0889
Copyright © 2006 Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc.
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