A short time ago Orlando Cosmetic Surgery reported on the bounty of Botox uses and procedures. We saw that Botox could go beyond the boundaries of beauty: It could be used for migraine headaches and it could help patients with MS.
At that time, another one of the unique uses under investigation was botox for overactive bladder. Researchers discovered it could be used by patients who could not tolerate or respond to anticholinergics. Now this use has been approved by the FDA.
With an untreated overactive bladder condition, patients endure miserable symptoms like leaking urine (urinary incontinence.) They also suffer from very frequent and urgent needs to urinate. In simple terms, the “bladder squeezes too often, or squeezes without warning.” It is an unhealthy, uncomfortable, and embarassing condition, but now botox, initially a cosmetic injection dedicated to beauty, comes to the rescue of patients with this problem.
How Can Botox help the Bladder?
1. Botox is injected directly into the bladder muscle, where it causes the bladder to relax.
2. This increases the bladder’s storage capacity. Much to everyone’s delight, the Botox stops or minimizes “episodes of urinary incontinence.”
3. Special note: If you need this treatment, you should know that ‘cystoscopy” is a medical procedure that allows a doctor to “visualize the interior of the bladder, while Botox is being injected.”
4. Side Effects:
During clinical trials, some patients reported urinary tract infections, painful urination, and the incomplete emptying of the bladder (urinary retention).
Realistically, it should be understood that patients who develop urinary retention may need to use a catheter until the issue is resolved.
In a recent official press release, Hylton V. Joffe, M.D., director of the Division of Reproductive and Urologic Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, stated “Clinical studies have demonstrated Botox’s ability to significantly reduce the frequency of urinary incontinence,” He added, “Today’s approval provides an important additional treatment option for patients with overactive bladder.”
Patients being treated for overactive bladder with Botox should take antibiotics before, during, and after Botox treatment. There is no doubt this will lower the chance of developing an infection from the injections into the bladder muscle.
Orlando Cosmetic Surgery reminds you, that the relationship between health and beauty, is more than skin deep. Discoveries of medications, and techniques in one field often lead directly to new procedures in the other. Botox is an example, and we think that’s beautiful.
