Advances for Incontinence Treatment

With all of the new treatments available for incontinence nowadays, an effective and easy
solution is within reach for men struggling with incontinence. The main roadblock to that
solution might just be the patient himself, by minimizing the severity of his condition.
Urologists advise patients that full disclosure is the best policy in helping them with their
condition. Hopefully, with enough publicity about these advances in the treatment of both
male and female incontinence, more patients will speak up and get their condition cured.

In the past, the biggest fear for males undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostate
cancer was either urinary incontinence or an over-aggressive trimming of a blocking
prostate (BPH). Nowadays, both are rare. Incontinence after radical prostatectomy will
generally occur in about 2 % of cases. Leakage after an over-aggressive trimming of a
prostate for blockage occurs less often, but it's not rare.

A New Perspective and New Outlook

Of course, the cases of male incontinence can vary by degrees depending on their
perspective. Men are more willing to cope with their leakage than to undergo yet another
procedure. A successful treatment is the American Medical Systems 800TM Urinary
Control System, also known as an artificial urinary sphincter (AUS). It is the only
artificial urinary sphincter currently on the market. For over 30 years, physicians
worldwide have surgically implanted the device in more than 94,000 men as a treatment
for stress urinary incontinence due to prostatectomy.

However, many patients who leak mildly or moderately, using 1-4 pads per day, feel that
an AUS is too invasive, because of the degree of their incontinence and/or amount of
leakage. Doctors counsel that the surgery only requires just one or two small incisions.
Considered the gold stand in treating incontinence, AUS is very effective in stopping
even most severe leakage. The results are effective and long lasting and well worth
considering.

For those patients who are not candidates for AUS, there is the AdVance™ Male Sling
System (AMS), also from American Medical Systems, used with great success by
urologists, is effective in cases of mild to moderate incontinence. The AMS will appeal to
many patients as a minimally invasive procedure with a high success rate. The procedure
takes about an hour, under spinal or general anesthesia, as an outpatient procedure. The
recovery is quick and results are immediate. Patients treated with AMS are extremely
pleased with the results.

New Female Stress Incontinence Treatments

By the same token, advances in female stress incontinence are resulting in further
refinement of slings for women. The new The MiniArc® Single-Incision Sling System
from American Medical Systems is a revolutionary procedure that uses a single-incision
approach to reduce invasiveness and enhance patient recovery. Mini-Arc's can be placed
in just 10 minutes, as an outpatient procedure, with an almost immediate return to normal
daily activities and an immediate end to leakage. The sling is only 5cm long, compared to
those that are three or four times the length of other slings on the market.

The male bladder sling has been around for several years and is similar in scope to a
female bladder sling. The revolutionary idea is the brainchild of urologists Peter Redher,
M.D., and Christian Gozzi, M.D., who questioned the validity of old beliefs and wanted
to treat male incontinence the same way they treated female incontinence. Previously,
doctors had been conditioned to believe that the strong, narrow and muscular male pelvis
could never allow the bladder to drop the way a female pelvis does. This pointed them to
the key component of male leakage after prostate removal, which is hypermobility.
Hypermobility refers to movement and is the most common cause of female stress
incontinence. The male sling solution was to drop the bladder neck, just as in the female
sling concept.

What you don’t say will not cure you

The inaccurate underrepresentation of male incontinence is similar to how erectile
dysfunction was under reported before the discovery of Viagra. After Viagra, once men
realized there was an easy, effective treatment, they readily admitted to the condition.
Therefore it would appear that incidence of erectile dysfunction rose with the discovery
of Viagra as a treatment, when really only the reporting was increased. Similarly the
incidence of male urinary incontinence will rise with the advent of effective and
relatively solutions such as the AMS, once men realize how effective and non-invasive it
is.

The interesting thing for doctors is how many men have leakage and minimize it almost
to a point of denial. They have seen several patients who clearly stated they do not have
incontinence and do not use pads. Doctors can try to get patients to open up to other
ideas, by merely discussing the minimally invasive procedures that do not require much
recovery. It is at this point that patients will admit to mild to moderate incontinence and
make them curious enough to pursue these options.