Incontinence
Is incontinence your "little secret?"
Incontinence is a problem, particularly for senior women and mothers,
but it doesn't have to be. Ventura
County Urology Medical Group has the medical expertise
to find the source of incontinence, then treat it with a variety of
methods:
• Durasphere injections –
Used to supplement the closing of the urethra during coughing,
sneezing, or laughing. An outpatient procedure.
• Exercise – Called
"Kegel Exercises," they are very effective in controlling
the bladder, especially when combined with a local hormone cream.
• Estrogen cream on the urethra.
• Medications – New
"anticholinergic" medications have proven to be very
effective in reducing female incontinence and male incontinence due to
neurological problems, with fewer side effects than past medications.
• Urethral sphincter
mechanism – In some cases, male incontinence is best treated with
the installation of this device in an outpatient procedure.
• Slings – An outpatient
surgical procedure for both women and men.
Take control of your bladder. At
Ventura
County Urology Medical Group, we can quickly and easily
evaluate your condition and make recommendations based on our many
years of experience with virtually every type of incontinence problem
and solution.
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Female (three types):
Loss of bladder neck support.
Common. Fifty percent of patients who have this problem can
dramatically improve their situation with local hormone cream plus
Kegel's exercises (four sets of 25 each daily). If the support is too
poor, then surgery is required. Historically incontinence procedures
have been about 70% successful over a five year period of time. Now
with sling procedures, the success rate is up to 90%. These are
outpatient procedures but do require approximately one month off work.
ISD (Intrinsic Sphincter
Deficiency):
Approximately 10% of women with leakage have this problem due to the
urethra not puckering up with a cough or sneeze. This is almost always
correctable with the office or hospital procedures of Durasphere injections.
Bladder instability:
Neurological problem causing the bladder to be more sensitive to cold,
filling, and stress. Women frequently cannot reach the bathroom in
time after having an urge. This condition is readily helped by
medications which in the past have had severe side effects, mainly dry
mouth, so that only an approximate 20% of the patients would even take
the medications. Fortunately we now have new anticholinergics with
less side effects.
Unfortunately some women have a combination of two or even three of
the above types of leakage and all need to be addressed.
Male:
Incontinence can be due to prostate obstruction, neurological disease or
rarely prior radical prostate surgery (rare).
Surgery is required to alleviate the obstruction and medications
are required for the neurological problems.
Urethral sphincter mechanism:
Outpatient surgical procedure with a silicone cuff around the urethra
controlled by a small pump in the scrotum-requires three compressions
on the pump to urinate and automatically closes in 30 to 40 seconds.
2807 Loma
Vista Rd., Ste. 101
Ventura, CA 93003
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