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
Famous quotes containing the words nerve, stimulation, diseases and/or tract:
“The American people is out to get the kaiser. We are bending every nerve and every energy towards that end; anybody who gets in the way of the great machine the energy and devotion of a hundred million patriots is building towards the stainless purpose of saving civilization from the Huns will be mashed like a fly. I’m surprised that a collegebred man like you hasn’t more sense. Don’t monkey with the buzzsaw.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“[Girls] study under the paralyzing idea that their acquirements cannot be brought into practical use. They may subserve the purposes of promoting individual domestic pleasure and social enjoyment in conversation, but what are they in comparison with the grand stimulation of independence and self- reliance, of the capability of contributing to the comfort and happiness of those whom they love as their own souls?”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“Arrogance, pedantry, and dogmatism ... the occupational diseases of those who spend their lives directing the intellects of the young.”
—Henry S. Canby (1878–1961)
“When the State wishes to endow an academy or university, it grants it a tract of forest land: one saw represents an academy, a gang, a university.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)