Botox for Bladders
Reported March 19, 2010
MIAMI (Ivanhoe Newswire) — It’s well known for its cosmetic uses — but doctors say Botox may also be the key to helping millions of Americans that suffer from overactive bladders.
It’s ranked among the 10 most common chronic medical conditions and impacts nearly 34 million people. More than half don’t find relief through traditional treatments, so one woman turned to an experimental injection for help.
It’s a painful and annoying problem that has plagued 29-year-old Claudia Angel for the past six years.
If youre going to the restroom a couple times a day, you dont really notice it, but when the numbers start adding up to where its 40, 50, 60 times a day the pain you get from it, the physical pain is not fun at all,” Angel told Ivanhoe.
She tried medications, pelvic exercises, even an implant, but nothing relieved her overactive bladder.
I didnt know what to do anymore,” Angel said. “I thought ‘Oh my God, this is going to be the rest of my life?’ And its not fun.”
Angel became a test patient for an experimental treatment. Under local anesthesia, urologist Angelo Gousse, M.D., of the UM Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Fla., threads a needle through a scope with a camera mounted on it. As it passes through the urethra, Dr. Gousse injects Botox — the same treatment for wrinkles — directly into the bladder.
What it does is it tends to kind of numb, if you would, not only the muscle, but also the nerves that are located within the wall of the urinary bladder, and so for this reason, it also helps significantly with the sense of urgency,” Dr. Gousse explained to Ivanhoe.
Doctors say 75 percent of patients report significant improvement in symptoms and in their quality of life.
Angel felt the difference after her first treatment.
Awesome,” she said. “I was very excited the first day that I noticed it. I called my husband and I said, ‘Do you know I havent gone to the bathroom in like eight hours?’
Now, for the first time in years, she feels like she’s in control.
The Botox procedure is done on an outpatient basis and patients can return to work the same day. Each treatment lasts four to six months. Angel says her Botox injections were not covered by insurance, and the cost is about $1,000 per treatment. Though the injection is given in non-toxic amounts, some patients may suffer retention problems from the injections.
