Treatments for Overactive Bladder

There are several treatment options for overactive bladder, including Medtronic’s innovative InterStim® neurostimulator. This is an electrical stimulation therapy used to treat more than 50,000 people worldwide since 1994. A reversible treatment, the InterStim therapy uses a small implanted neurostimulator to send mild electrical pulses to the sacral nerve to reduce symptoms.

The doctors at Pacific Urology have considerable expertise in this innovative treatment for patients who have failed or could not tolerate more conservative treatments. You can learn more at www.InterStim.com

If your life has been disrupted by bladder problems and other treatments have not worked or have caused intolerable side effects, talk to your doctor about how you can get back to normal. In addition to InterStim, below are other measures that might be considered.

Behavioral techniques

Some people can reduce the symptoms of bladder control problems with healthy lifestyle habits, diet modification, biofeedback, bladder retraining, and pelvic muscle exercises.

Medications

Medications may be prescribed by your doctor to help control the symptoms of your bladder control problem. The various types of medications used for bladder control problems focus on the muscles associated with bladder function.

Permanent surgical procedures

In some cases, people choose bladder augmentation (changing bladder size), bladder denervation (cutting or excising part of a nerve), or bladder removal to treat their bladder control problems.

Reference 1: “Neurophysiology of Micturition,” chapter 2, p. 23 in Female Urology, Urogynecology and Voiding Dysfunction, edited by Vasavada, et al, 2005.