Hendrick Medical Center offers new urological treatment to Big Country residents
A physician at Hendrick Medical Center is using mild electrical stimulation similar to that found in a pacemaker-like system to treat overactive bladder symptoms, specifically urinary urge incontinence and urgency-frequency, in addition to non-obstructive urinary retention, in patients who have not had success with, or could not tolerate, more conservative treatments. More than 37 million adults in the United States – one in six – suffer from overactive bladder issues.
The procedure, called Sacral Neuromodulation, is minimally invasive and helps correct the miscommunication between the bladder and the brain.
“Bladder control problems can significantly impair a patient’s quality of life, and many patients are too embarrassed or uncomfortable to talk about the problem with their physician,” said Katherine Rinard, M.D., urologist at Hendrick Medical Center. “Until now, treatment options have been limited for people with bladder incontinence issues who don’t respond to conservative therapies. Sacral Neuromodulation is a proven therapy that offers significant improvements in overactive bladder symptoms and quality of life.”
While the technology has been around for about a decade, Big Country residents have had to travel outside of Abilene to have the procedure performed.
During an outpatient procedure, the neurostimulator, about the size of a stopwatch, is placed under the skin in the lower back near the sacral nerves. The InterStim system then delivers mild electrical stimulation to stimulate the sacral nerves, which help the brain and nerves to communicate so the bladder and related muscles can function correctly.
Patients are first given a trial control unit to determine its effectiveness. If the treatment is effective, the patient will undergo a second procedure to receive the permanent implant. A smaller device is implanted under the skin and fat of the lower back so it cannot be felt. A control unit, the size of a mobile phone, is used to change and control the frequency of electrical signals.
The InterStim system, the world’s first sacral neuromodulation therapy, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of
urinary urge incontinence in 1997, (non-obstructive) urinary retention and urinary urgency-frequency in 1999 and chronic fecal incontinence in 2011.
InterStim Therapy is now used for both urinary control and bowel control in many countries, including the United States, throughout Europe, Canada and
Australia.
InterStim Therapy for Urinary Control is also the only bladder control treatment option that allows patients and physicians to test the probable success of the therapy through an evaluation prior to committing to long-term therapy. Even after implantation, the treatment is reversible and can be discontinued at any time by turning off or surgically removing the device.
To date, more than 125,000 people have received InterStim Therapy worldwide.