Botox injections directly into the bladder have gained increasing use as a treatment for overactive bladder (OAB) – the symptoms that make a person feel they need to urinate urgently and often.
A study by researchers at Taiwan’s Tzu Chi University, reported in Investigative and Clinical Urology, explained how injecting Botox disrupts the neurotransmitters in the muscles of the bladder and inhibits certain sensations that would cause a person to need to urinate.
While doctors do not recommend Botox in the bladder as the first line of treatment for OAB and other bladder problems, it is ‘a viable, proven option if lifestyle changes and medications do not prove successful in providing relief from symptoms’, according to a report titled ‘Botox for Overactive Bladder, Urgency Incontinence and Neurogenic Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction’ published by the University of Los Angeles on uclahealth.org.
However, a Polish study published in the International Urogynecology Journal reported up to 6% of women receiving Botox for OAB needed catheterisation to relieve urinary retention ‘within the first two weeks after the injection’.
Botox for OAB is generally an outpatient procedure performed under local anaesthetic, beginning with insertion of a catheter into the bladder (through the urethra) to transmit a numbing agent such as lidocaine, which remains in the bladder for up to 30 minutes before the injections begin.
The doctor will then pass a small scope connected to a camera into the bladder through the urethra; this device administers a series of quick injections of Botox solution into the muscle of the bladder with a small needle passed through the scope.
A patient goes home shortly after treatment and ‘results are effective for at least 3 months, but can last between 6-12 months before a person will require repeat treatment when their OAB symptoms return’, noted medicalnewstoday.com.
