In order to cure hard to treat cases of incontinence, patients are being injected with their own muscle cells. The thought is that these injections improve the strength of existing muscles around the bladder, relieving the symptoms of the condition and diminishing the odds of embarrassing leaks.
Incontinence is believed to affect one in ten women and one twenty men and the prevalence increases with age. The incontinence disorder is mainly of two types that are stress and urge incontinence. It is believed these are accountable for nine out of ten cases.
In stress incontinence, the pelvic floor muscles are too weak to prevent urination, which causes leaks when the bladder is under pressure such while coughing or laughing. Urge incontinence is when urine leaks all at once, or just after, an abrupt intense urge to pass water. It is occurred when bladder become overactive and contracts when it is not supposed to be.
The wide range of treatments is used for conditions, counting exercises and electrical stimulation to strengthen the pelvic muscles and drugs to boost muscle tone. In more severe cases surgery is recommended. One technique involves inserting a ribbon of material called a sling beneath the bladder. This helps to close the urethra, the conduit that carries urine from the bladder, preventing any leaking.
A clinical trial involving three hundred women showed significant benefits of injecting muscle cells. The animal trails of the methods done at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine showed that injecting muscle cells into the muscles of the urethra refurbished their strength. In the human trials, samples of skeletal muscle tissue will be taken from thighs of the patient.
These cells will then be proliferated in a laboratory. In a second outpatient procedure, the women will then have their own cells injected into the area surrounding the urethra. The doctors use ultrasound to guide the needle to the correct position. The hypothesis is that once the cells have been implanted, they grow and become part of the existing muscle.
They boost its strength to give firmer control over urination. This is a great contribution towards non-operative treatment of stress urinary incontinence, stated Dr Raj Persad, consultant urologist and senior clinical lecturer at Bristol University while commenting on the study. Wider-scale randomized trials are required, but these results are encouraging.