Sacral Nerve Stimulation For Diseases in The Urinary Tract
Chronic lower urinary tract voiding dysfunction includes a large number of diseases that are difficult to treat. Conservative procedure (like biofeedback) and pharmacologic therapy show no benefits to 40% of patients. For those people, the most common treatment is the surgical intervention that has an inconstant efficiency.
Many studies have been initiated using the sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) technique to treat patients that suffer with urinary problems. When applying this procedure, proper patient screening is esssential, because some disorders that affect the urinary tract (like bladder calculus or carcinoma in-situ) have to be treated differently. Once the patient is selected, he receives a temporary external pulse generator connected to wire leads at S3 foramina for 1-2 weeks. If the person’s symptoms improve by more than 50%, he receives the permanent wire leads and stimulator that is implanted in the hip in the subcutaneous tissue. The first follow up happens 1-2 weeks later to check if the permanent devices are providing improvement in the user’s symptoms and to program the pulse generator adequately.
Bleeding, infection, pain and unwanted stimulation in the extremities are some of the complications resulting from this therapy. Currently, battery replacements are necessary 5-10 years after implementation depending upon the strength of the stimulation therapy. Battery life is expected to continue to increase with advancements in technology. This procedure has shown long term success rate that ranges from 50% to 90%. Thus, SNS is a good option for patients with lower urinary tract dysfunction refractive to conservative and pharmacological interventions.
Read more about this topic: Sacral Nerves
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